The Little Match Girl
by romeoandcinderella
Summary: Everyone loves winter, or at least that's what Jack Frost thought until he saw her. On a cold New Year's Eve, The Little Match Girl busied herself, warming the young boy on the cold, cruel, snowy night.
1. On that New Year's Eve, he learned

**Chapter 1: **New Year's Eve

It was New Year's Eve and the thought of Pitch had been long buried in the sea of years and memories, almost three years have now passed since then. Jack has been wandering around for some time now, causing general mischief that he always did.

Winter had always been his favorite season, not only because it's practically his season, but also because it was the time where everyone is happy. Christmas happened in winter, and so did New Year. It was a season of festivities, and general happiness.

White flakes rained down the land, in a sweet and gentle dance. Pure, white snow covered the paths, gently blanketing the earth with its purity. Everything seemed so peaceful, and gentle. It eased his mind, and made him stop his mischief making for a while.

He always believed that this season brings happiness to everyone, until he stumbled upon a village he didn't bother to know the name. The village wasn't really that special, like every other village, this one was as busy for the New Year. Each house was as warm as the others. Bright lights illuminated the streets, and reflected the joy that the villagers feel, but what made him stop was a young boy on the street.

The boy looked no older than five. The brown color of his hair was barely recognizable because of the dirt that settled there, his face was decorated with dirt, and grease, and his eyes... his eyes looked far too older than he actually is. His eyes held grief, longing, and all other emotions that a mere child shouldn't even be aware of yet. His body is adorned of rags, as dirty as the rest of his body, and barely warmed the freezing child. He looked at the people around him, and surely he saw people glancing the young boy's way, but none of them really bothered to help him. Everyone else was too busy warming themselves that they paid no attention to the freezing boy.

On the boy's hand was a slightly distorted tin can that he lightly waved around while begging for alms. When the boy realized that no one was going to take pity in him, he crawled to the tiny space in between two brick houses, hugging himself, desperate for warmth.

He followed the boy into the alley, and crouched down in front of him. It saddened him to know that he won't be able to help the boy. Yes, he can control the snow, and the wind, but that's it. The boy needed warmth, which is the last thing he will be able to give.

Yes he was surprised, but what was more surprising was the fact that the boy can't see him. After defeating Pitch, his name was spread and more children started to believe in him as much as they believed the rest of the Guardians. Not only that, but the boy is still very young to cease believing in them.

From his place, he took a few steps back to the entrance of the alley, he pondered for a moment before picking up a handful of snow, ready to make the boy happy with them. He leaned back and threw the snowball lightly, but before it reached the boy, it melted. Waves of warm light filled the alley, swirling until it became the size of a normal human. And there, he saw her.

He's heard about her a lot of times in the past, both from the Guardians and little children. He's never seen her in person, but he knows he can't be mistaken. Red hair that fell into soft waves, warm crimson mantle over a white dress that fell past her knees, thin limbs than connected to an equally scrawny body. It's her, no doubt about it.

"The Little Match Girl?" he said hesitantly.

She didn't even bother looking turning her back away from him as she stood in front of the boy. The mantle she wore turned back into a fire, and grew. Warmth flooded the alley, and soon enough, the boy ceased to shiver. With both of her hands, she grabbed her burning mantle that was now the size of a cloak fluttered violently around her. She pulled a huge portion of fire, and turned it into a burning cloak, and draped it over the boy.

She held her hand out, and from there, a small flame appeared, and turned into a match box that she then dropped behind the boy.

The boy, hearing the sound turned to see the match, and slowly made his way to it. He clutched it like a treasure, and smiled like for the first time that day.

The girl, seemingly pleased turned back into waves of flames, and floated up from the place.

Jack, who had been watching her silently, suddenly realized what she was doing and quickly followed her up to the roofs.

"Hey! Wait up! Hey!" he shouted, floating after her.

The flames ceased moving and hovered above a roof of a bakery before transforming back into a girl.

Jack landed on the same roof, but stood a few feet away from her. He was unsure of what he was supposed to do so he just settled to staring at her. He didn't have to do anything though, the girl is already making her way to him. She lifted her bony arms and slowly stopped it in front of his face.

Her odd actions made him confused, but before he was able to ask her a question, he felt pain on his face, his nose specifically. He stumbled back from surprised, and clutched his nose.

"Wh-what was that for!?"

"That…" her voice surprised him. It sounded more mature than he thought it would be. "was for finding a freezing kid in an alley, and attempting throw a snowball at him... I say you deserve a free flick on the nose for sheer idiocy."

"What!? I was doing in out of goodness! It was supposed to make him happy!" he defended, though slightly taken aback by accusation.

"Of course! Happy! Happy and freezing to death, you mean. Did you accidentally leave you brain and common sense at home or something?" she replied, her tone sounding as bored as before.

The girl's responses terribly amused him. He studied her face, and his eyes were suddenly pulled to hers. Her eyes are a blend of red, and yellow, but not really an orange. They held warmth that was very familiar.

He stayed at her for a while, until the girl waved her hand around his face a few times.

"Oh God, I broke him." She said, though not a hint of guilt found in her voice.

He finally broke out of his little stupor, and replied, "You're kinda cool you know." He held out his hand, and continued, "I'm Jack Frost, by the way. What's your name?"

She stared his outstretch hand for a while before replying, "Varmilda. Varmilda Stern, the Little Match Girl."

For a moment, he pondered of what to say next, until a realization hit him. "That boy can't see you."

Varmilda lightly tilted her head to one side, staring at him in genuine curiosity, as if asking him to elaborate his words.

"I mean, he can't see you so that must mean that he doesn't believe in you." That didn't really seem to make the girl less confused. "Aren't you bothered by that?"

She finally saw what he meant, and shrugged, "Why should I be?"

"Well, why shouldn't you be?"

"Because it doesn't matter?" she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "I don't really mind not being seen by the children I help. As long as I'm able to give warmth, then I'm happy."

He looked at her in shock, and realized that her words did make sense. Her words seemed contradictory to what he and the other guardians wanted. It was like looking into thing with a new set of eyes. Perhaps, he's been looking at things wrongly…

"You're really odd, you know?" he said, smirking down at the small girl.

"You're one to talk." She replied, a hint of laughter covering her previously, whether it was genuine or not, he does not know.

She is right though, they were both very odd.

* * *

**A/N: **I just recently watched the Rise of the Guardians, and fell in love in an instant.

I have never really made anything other than a one shot, and I'm still new to writing, so please forgive me for any mistakes. It would really help me improve to give a little review, and let me know of I get things wrong.


	2. that Fairytales and Reality

**Chapter 2: **Fairytales and Reality

Jack spent the remainder of the night flying with Varmilda, although it seems to actually be more like him pestering her, and her trying to get away. After some time, she finally gave up and let him be, hoping that it would stop him from being annoying.

He learned a few things about her. One of his favorite discoveries is that she is very easy and very fun to annoy. It amused him to see how she scrunches her nose whenever he pulls on her hair, or how she rolls her eyes and tries hard not to laugh at his constant jokes.

Within the first few hours flying around with Jack, Varmilda also learned a handful of things about him. She soon learned that he's not as idiotic as she first thought. She still found him quite immature and generally annoying, but he seemed to genuinely like children so that makes him somewhat tolerable, or maybe she was forced to tolerate him, seeing that he doesn't really have any plan of going away.

After a few more minutes of flying, they landed once more on a snowy village for the nth time that night. He noticed her close her eyes and hold out her hand. From her hand, little flames appeared, took the shape of many butterflies, and scattered around the place. Just like all the other flames that she scattered from the previous villages they went to, the flaming creatures went to hidden alleys, seemingly searching for something before floating to the top of that alley, signaling that they have found what they were looking for.

Her eyes scanned the place, searching for the nearest indication of what she was looking for. A couple of blocks away from them, a flaming butterfly can be seen, fluttering above an alley. She started to make her way to the alley, and Jack followed her.

Just like every other alleys they've been through, this one is also used as a warming spot for a stray child. She repeated what she has done the first time he saw her. Making her mantle light with fire, she conjured a flaming coat, and rested it on the child's shoulder. From her hands, appeared a tiny flame that turned into a match, which she lightly dropped behind the frail child.

Although the night had been monotonous, one thing that Jack observed is that Varmilda never seemed to grow tired of what she was doing. Her every step toward a child is filled with gentleness, and warmth, her every movement brought warmth through the children. She never got bored of what she is doing, and every child he helped made her look like it's still her first one. Her face still held that small smile that never faltered even if a lot of children still didn't see her even after she helped them.

They went to the next alley, and he was relieved to know that the child there saw them, or him at the very least. Through the time they were in that alley, the little girl inside there had a big grin adorning her face. The girl's eyes followed his every movement, and seemed to forget about the cold. She looked visibly relieved as Varmilda gave her the cloak, and the match box.

Jack crouched down next to the girl and asked, "What's your name?"

"J-j-jenny…" she relied, slightly taken aback from the fact that the winter spirit is talking to her.

"Do you know who we are?" Jack pointed to her and the fire spirit.

"We…? You're Jack Frost, and…" Jenny became confused, and she started to search for Jack's supposedly companion.

Jack frowned, and gave the girl a kiss on the cheek, before waving goodbye.

"She's the eighty-fourth child tonight!" he exclaimed at her. His frustration rose as he saw her indifferent face, "I mean… aren't you even a little bit sad to know that nobody someone believes in you…?"

"I still don't see why you're making a big deal about children not believing in me." She shook her head at him, giving him a tired look "A child is a child no matter what. I don't give warmth to have them believe, I give warmth because they're cold."

"Fine, fine." He said, waving his hand. "But really… why is it that nobody believes in you. Back when no one believed in me, a few children already knew my name, and aren't you really popular with kids? Being a book character and all that."

"You see…" she started with a sigh, "that's the difference that sets me apart from everyone else. Your lot is known for bringing happiness, giving hope and all that, kind of all that fairytale stuff, while I'm… I'm that really harsh truth that reminds them that the world can never be perfect and always happy."

He stared at her, finally realizing what she had been trying so hard to say before. He finally understood why no one saw her. It's not that they don't know her, it's just they refuse to acknowledge her existence. Everybody craved for happiness, and no one wants to be miserable.

They finished warming the village in silence. It wasn't really awkward, nor was it comfortable.

"Hey, how old are you when you… you know, became immortal like me?" his best guess was one or a couple of years younger than he did.

"I was fifteen, I think." She replied distractedly, "And if I'm correct, I was resurrected a couple of decades earlier than you."

"Oh…" he didn't really know what to reply to that.

He looked around and noticed that the place wasn't as dark as before. The previously black sky now turned slightly blue. It was probably four hours before sunrise, he concluded.

"The night is done, and so is my job." His companion broke the silence.

"Is that how you tell when your job is done?" he mindlessly asked, sounding like a child.

"No. I just can tell when a child is cold, my job ends when it stops being too cold for comfort."

"What do you do after you finish your job?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"Go home, and rest."

"Where do you go home to?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because I want to know…?" it irritated him. Her way of answering did. Her responses to his questions were almost always another question, or short one that exactly answered his question but revealed nothing more. She answered to be polite, and only shared as she pleases, he noted.

"Well, I'm going home now. Go ask sometime else." She stared into a window of a house near them. Her body slowly turned into wispy flames, and flew into the house open window.

"Hey! Hey, wait a sec-"his words were cut off as she flew into the house's lit fireplace, and disappeared.

"I guess I'll just see you tonight then." He said to no one in particular.

* * *

**A/N:** So here's the second chapter. I hope you guys enjoy.


	3. are just a Book away

**Chapter 3: **A book away

A feeling of tiredness suddenly weighed down on him. 'At least the night had been fun," he mused. He looked forward to seeing her again tonight, but for now, it was time to rest and replenish. It is his mission to spread fun, after all.

He stretched his arms above his head and let a yawn escape his thin, pale lips. But before he was able to do anything, the sun peered out from behind the houses, greeting him with an unpleasant shine.

With a groan, he clutched his staff and started to walk out of the village and into the forest. 'Oh well, at least I can still have fun.' he lifted himself into the air and searched for ant signs of children who needed fun. Perhaps it was still a little too early then, because it took him an hour and a half of flying before he found the perfect candidate.

He landed into the snow-covered playground where eight children huddled together, whining and frowning at the broken swings and the sorry state of the playground.

"Now, time to have a little fun," he said, making the children turn their heads toward him.

"Is that-"

"Is is really…?"

"No way."

Their amazed faces certainly lifted his mood instantly. "Hey kiddos! Guess who?"

"Jack Frost!" the children chorused before charging at him, tackling him into the cold ground.

"Alright! Alright!" he tried getting up from under the dogpile, and failed magnificently. "Now, who want to have a snowball fight?"

"We do!" the question instantly made them jump on to their feet, freeing Jack from their clutches.

He grinned from the ground and started to scoop up the cold snow with his equally cold hands.

* * *

Jack soon forgot all thoughts about Varmilda until the sun started to set. Then, he realized that he had no idea how he will find her again. Their meeting was purely coincidental, and he doesn't really think that freezing a kid would be a smart way to lure her out. (It is actually a genius idea, but he didn't think she would appreciate that, nor would anyone else.)

He was so concentrated on the thought that he failed to notice Baby Tooth fluttering around his face. The mini fairy soon got frustrated and started pulling on his ear, also pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Baby Tooth! How did you get here?" her sudden appearance startled him a little.

Instead of replying, the mini fairy huffed and pulled the strings of his sweater.

"Oh, right, dinner at North's."

After being together and defeating Pitch, it had been a tradition of the guardians to come together at least once a month, usually the first day of the month. Not only that, but it's also New Year's day too so everyone must be excited.

"Wait, how am I supposed to get there quickly anyways?" a tap on his right shoulder answered his question.

Two yetis stood behind him, and before he can run away, they grabbed him and shoved him into a very familiar sack.

"Hey guys! Isn't there any other way?" he felt the yeti holding his sack, swing him. "Come on! Nooooo-!"

The next thing he knew, he landed on a hard ground with a loud thud. He felt around the sack, trying to find its opening before getting out slowly, due to the ache in his limbs caused by the fall.

"Welcome back, Jack!" North greeted him. To North's right was Tooth, waving an excited hello, on North's left was a sleeping Sandy, and next to Sandy was Bunnymund, not even bothering to hide his amusement from Jack's ungraceful entrance.

He was about to throw an insult to the Easter bunny when North interrupted him, "Now, now. We only see each other once a month, and this is a very special day after all, so **no fighting**." He said calmly, putting a little more emphasis on the no fighting part.

"Of course! Come on, Jack!" Tooth flew over to him, held his cheeks, and grinned excitedly.

Jack was soon lead into the Dining room by Tooth. He looked around the place, finding it as colorful as it was before. He also noticed that the Yetis and elves seemed to be a little more relaxed and laid back, probably due to the Christmas season recently ending.

He was lead into a very large room, almost the size of for regularly-sized houses. In the middle of the room was along dining table. It was so long that it can probably accommodate a tiny population of villagers in it.

North sat on the head of the table, on his either side were Sandy and Bunnymund. Jack sat next to Sandy, why Tooth sat across him. Elves entered into the room, carrying plates of various dishes that they were going to feast on tonight.

"Uhh… are those safe to eat?" he tentatively asked, even though it was certainly not his first time eating food sent by the elves.

"Course they are!" North reassured him.

"Yeah, plus, you've eaten those at least once a month for the past ten years." Bunnymund said oh-so-smartly.

"Nobody was asking for your opinion, Mr. Kangaroo who can't keep his mouth shut." He replied, trying to mask his growing irritation.

"Alright! You've done it!" the Easter Kangaroo- err, Bunny shouted and stood up, prepared to dismantle the winter spirit.

"Ah, ah, ah. Not in front of the food." Jack said, making Bunnymund furious.

"ENOUGH!" North exclaimed, "Bunnymund, calm yourself. Jack, stop annoying Bunnymund."

"Yes mommy." Jack replied in a shrilly voice, imitating a little girl.

They started to eat in peace, occasionally having light chats, usually about how hectic the Christmas went, or what they did during the past month. On a particular pause in their Jack asked,

"Does anyone of you know anything about Varmilda?" her name didn't quite roll on his tongue nicely.

Their attention turned to him. It was Tooth who answered him.

"You mean Stern? Then yes, quite a nice girl actually, very polite." She started to ramble about, "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I just recently met her. Odd girl actually, but very amusing." He replied thoughtlessly.

"Well, what do you wish to know about her?" it was North who spoke this time.

"Well… I don't know. Why call her Stern…?" he asked the first thing that came to his mind at that time.

"Her name isn't really that comfortable to say, it's kind of like calling to an old lady." North started, "and she does agree with it."

"Oh. Does anyone else find her way of thinking quite… what's the word, odd?"

"Well…" North scratched his head, seemingly wanting to desperately avoid the question.

"You see, Jack." North was spared by Tooth, "that's actually a topic we were never able to agree upon with her, but yes, it's an odd way of thinking, quite sad actually."

He didn't try to press on anymore of the matter and just settled to a safe question, "Any of you have any ideas where I'll find her tonight?"

Sandy started to waved around frantically, and created a little shape above his head.

"Uhh… Denmark? How can you be sure?"

"Dunno kid, ever tried reading a book?" Bunnymund seemed to got his annoyingness back.

"Well, we can ask one of my little fairies to tell us if she ever crossed their ways." Tooth said, before a fight broke out.

"I guess…"

And with that, they finally let go of the topic. Turning it into ones involving spoiled children. His thought soon drifted into what Bunnymund said.

_A book, huh? Why not?_

* * *

**A/N: **Here's the third chapter. It didn't have any Varmilda appearance inside, but she did get mentioned a lot._  
_

Hope you enjoy. Leave a review?


	4. People lie,

**Chapter 4**

That night, none of the mini fairies saw a glimpse of Varmilda. Tooth said it was probably because her mini fairies worked 'inside' the homes of children, while Varmilda worked for children who lacked homes. He didn't mind not seeing her that night actually, it gave him plenty of time to rest and helped him appreciate the joys of sleeping.

The morning soon came and Jack flew away from the North Pole with two thoughts in his mind: spreading fun, and Varmilda's book.

Jack knew that the little match girl was also popular with children, though she was a different kind of popular. Instead of being known as a magical entity or a mythological figure, she was instead known as a character on a children's book, she wasn't the only one though; there were also a lot of Immortals like her, simply known as mere ink on paper. She made him curious, which is also why he is now walking away from a window of a little library, clutching his staff with one hand, and holding an old book with the other.

The worn book was thin, and so, it didn't take him long to finish it. By the time he closed the book, his excited and curious expression turned into a one that is full of sympathy with a hint of pity. He knew that she's always had a short story written for her that was created by a human, but he never really bothered to pick up the book before.

He remembered North telling him last night that Varmilda once claimed that the story was inaccurate and blantantly made-up; not to mention utterly full of lies too. Back then, he thought that maybe the stories held embarrassing things written about her and was feeling in denial about them, but now that he has read it, he can't help but feel that even her words can't make the disturbing feeling inside him feel at go away.

* * *

Somewhere in Denmark, a red haired girl lay on a patch work of bricks that made up the ground, which was also oddly devoid of any snow. She rested, basked in warmth, in front of a bonfire whose flames are huge enough to swallow a child whole.

She stirred in her slumber, as if she felt that someone somewhere was thinking of her at that time. Her eyes drowsily shot open.

"Huh? Uh… wha…?" she mumbled sleepily, her eyes blinking ever so slowly. She took one look at the bright sky and went back to sleep.

'Still too early'

* * *

Jack didn't get any luck of meeting her again tonight, nor the night after that, not even the next. He hadn't really thought about her during those times, he had fun like he usually did, and it wasn't until the third day after that when he met her again.

Just like he usually did, he flew from country to country, spreading fun and occasional snow. It grew dark soon and he somehow found himself somewhere in Denmark where he saw the various flicker of familiar butterflies, and from an alley a blazing figure walked out.

"Hey Stern!" he called out to her, greeting.

She just stared at him with an expression of surprise and confusion as he descended from the air and into the snow-covered ground. It didn't take him take him long to figure out why: it was the first time he called her by her name(in front of her, at least). On their first meeting, he settled on calling her 'you', 'hey', and the occasional 'hey you'.

"Oh, I see that I have an actual name now." She quickly recovered and responded.

"What? No 'hello to you too, Jack'?" he said, putting his hand on his chest in mock hurt.

She just simply rolled her eyes, and turned her back toward him and started to leave.

"Wow, as rude as ever I see," he said as he started to float after her.

She just continued to walk away, going in from alley to alley. He used to find her task, rather boring. Unlike neither his nor the other guardian's tasks, hers lacked any dynamic. It was like she's stuck in some kind of a time loop, never changing. Did it bore her too? No, probably not.

Her tasked used to bore him, but not now. After looking at things differently, he was able to understand why she was able to stand the monotonous cycle for centuries. After reading her story, he didn't think he'd see things the same way again. For her to tell him her opinions about children was one thing, but hearing her experiences from a book was something that actually made him understand, not only by his head but also by his heart.

_Right, the book._

"Uh. Stern?" he started, feeling a little awkward.

"Hm?" she barely replied.

"You see…" he stopped walking and started to scratch around his snowy hair. "I read this book-"

"Good for you," she cut him off, not really sure where this conversation is going.

"What? No, this is serious," he defended himself, and then she finally understood.

"Oh, you mean those ridiculous books about me?" she asked indifferently.

"Care to at least explain a little more on the supposedly ridiculous part?"

"Did you even actually read the book?"

"Of course I did! I just want to hear it from you," he retorted, getting a little annoyed.

"Well, for starters, had the book been true I wouldn't even be here," she replied as annoyed. "I'll be reunited with my granny."

"Kind of like that heaven thing?" he heard that word before, and he also heard a lot of humans fight for that word too: Heaven.

"Perhaps…" she said, "but really, I think anything is better than being an immortal, forever stuck in this world."

It surprised him, not only her words but the way she said them. It held a bitter tone that didn't suit her and yet seemed to fit perfectly for her. But really, after spending years seeing nothing but the misery of children, he'll probably turn really bitter too.

The Guardians always had the children in their best, but she was the one who took care of those who are in their worst. Not only that, but her body itself practically screamed that she was used to be like those children she cared for: sickly thin, and withering. If that was really who she was before she died, then he understood her bitterness. Though, somewhere deep inside of him keeps on telling him that it's not quite the actual reason why she was bitter, but really, who knows?

"Stop that," she suddenly said.

"Stop what exactly?" he wasn't even trying to be annoying this time.

"The pity," she looked at him straight in the eyes. "I don't want them, so feel free keep them to yourself."

He didn't realize that he had been so obvious about it. He quickly dropped the subject, but repeatedly stole glances at her whenever he remembers the book. He realized that he really shouldn't have shown her that pity. He hated being pitied and he was certain that a lot of people did too.

"Let it go, it was a lie," she said out of nowhere.

"What?"

"The book," she said briefly. "They were lies. Nothing more."

* * *

**A/N: **So, here's chapter 4. My exams will be starting this Saturday so I'll probably not post anything for next week, but I promise that I'll make it up to you guys.

And, in case the Denmark thing last chapter got you confused, The Little Match Girl's (the actual story) author was Danish so I thought that it will only be appropriate if I were to make Varmilda Danish too.

Aaaand, a little review wouldn't hurt, and are actually highly appreciated.


	5. children die,

**Chapter 5:**

She'd probably never admit it, but Varmilda was happy to have Jack as a companion. Though he was annoying, he was good at entertaining her, and whenever Jack come by a believer, it makes him happy, seeing that warm sight made her wonder what will it feel like to have someone believe in you.

She never really cared about having believers before, but hanging around with Jack and how children became so happy whenever they see him, made her stop to think for a second. The way the children's eyes lit up at the sight of the winter spirit made her want to bring happiness too.

She lightly shook her head to push away the thought.

'He's probably been rubbing off his 'believer opinions' on me'

It was now that particular time in winter where the snow stopped falling, but the wind grew colder. It was that time of winter that she always dreaded. It was that time when the air itself was granted the ability to take a life, and once it grew too cold, she knows that not even her flames will save any of the winter air's victims.

"Varmilda…" she was broken out of her thoughts by the sound of Jack's voice, "Varmilda, Varmeelda, Varrmiiiiilda, Varmildaaa, Meelda, Millda, Varmie, Varmvarm," he repeatedly said her name, purposely elongating and stressing in various places, matching his weird mantra with ridiculous expressions.

"What are you doing…?" _seriously, this guy is getting weirder and weirder every hour._

"Why does your name sound so… awkward?" he said, brushing off her question.

"Why are you so annoying?" she responded, making him grin. "Uh… in case you didn't know, being called annoying isn't a compliment."

He just brushed off her question again, and grinned wider. "You're just that entertaining."

"Well you better pay up then," she held her hand out, "my services aren't free, boy."

"Alrighty then." He scooped up some snow, and blew his breath on it. He threw it into her way but she melted it before it got any nearer.

"No funny business." She squinted her eyes at him.

"Fine, fine." He held up his hands in the air, "I'm just trying to have fun, Varmie."

"Varmie?" she looked at him.

"Yeah," he started, "well, Varmilda sounded a little too old, and everyone back at North's were already calling you Stern, so I thought, 'where's the fun in that?'"

"That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard," she said, "both the nickname and the reason."

"Don't worry, you'll come to like your new name soon." He said with a smirk.

"Well, fine then, Frostiepoo." She cooed at him like he's a baby.

"Now that is ridiculous," he said with a laigh

"Not as ridiculous as your face though," she retorted quickly.

"Said the girl with the ridiculous face," now he was just plain unsure of what he is talking about then, but he doubt she'll notice.

"Is that your best insult?" well, apparently she noticed.

"Nah, but I figured that I should at least show you a good bit of my gentlemanliness," he quickly recovered, answering her coolly.

"So… when are you going to show it then?" she said, with a hint of mockery in her voice.

"You are truly an evil little girl," he said while shaking his head at her.

"Why thank you, my good sir," she replied with a bow.

* * *

A good amount of silence passed by them. Like before, she did her work as he watched her. She was really secretly grateful for his company. After spending centuries of wandering around and barely walking to anyone else, it made her not-so subconsciously long for some company.

She looked at him and studied his features. She saw that he had a slim figure. He had a healthy build. 'He was probably living a fairly satisfying life before he died,' she thought, a light feeling of envy stirring inside of her. She pushed the disgusting feeling away, and looked at his hair that resembled the snow took her away more than three hundred years ago. She caught a little glimpse of his pale blue eyes, that held so much joy. _Joy that I never had._

She didn't know why she was suddenly thinking that way. It made her feel very confused. She felt like she was hating on him, but somehow she didn't.

'It's probably because it was never his fault that he had a luckier life than her, but then again, she didn't really know his story,' she was soon pulled out of her thoughts by his voice.

"I see that you have fallen for my charms, little miss," he said after noticing her stare at him, "but, it's quite rude to stare, you know."

She quickly thought of an excuse and reached her hand out to his face, "No, no. There's something in your face," and she flicked him on the nose.

"That was uncalled for!"

She just simply ducked into the next alley. He saw her light up his flame, illuminating the little space. She was blocking his view of the child from where she was standing, and he had to look over her shoulder just to see. She suddenly dropped into her knees, hugging herself, making him panic. He quickly went to her side and clutched her shoulders.

"Hey, what happened?" he asked her.

She slowly turned her head towards him and held his face in his hands.

What Jack saw in her eyes scared him. She was looking at him with eyes filled with sadness and agony so strong that it made him feel like he was having the feeling himself.

He looked over her shoulder and saw a little girl, barely four years of age, devoid of movement and devoid of life. He then, looked back at her, and heard her say in defeat,

"Ja-jack… she's gone…" she said, trembling, "w-we… no, I… I was too late."

Never having any experience with situations like this, he just simply held her close.

"I failed… I failed again."

* * *

**A/N: **Welp! Here's chapter 5.

aaaaand, I killed off a kid. I didn't like it, but I thought it would be perfect way to show that the world is not all fun and games. sorry.


	6. and angels cry

**Chapter 6:**

"_I failed… I failed again."_

As he was holding the trembling spirit, a word caught his ears: _Again?_

Though he was known for being childish and immature, he was never naïve. He's always known that it's not only the adults who die, he himself died at a young age. But compared to this little girl, he at least had a decent life and death. He had a family, a home, and a lot of friends, all of the things he doubted this child had. He also died a hero's death in his precious sister's eyes, while this young girl died soundlessly, without anyone knowing nor caring about except for a mythological figure and a children's story character.

And no matter how much he pushed the thought away, he knew that his beloved season can cause demise of various people. He forced himself to swallow down the truth of life's cycle. And even though he knew all that, he can't really do anything to refrain himself from asking,

"Again…? What do you mean again…?" he blurted out before he can stop himself from asking.

He felt the fire spirit flinch before replying, "She's the two hundred twenty-eight child this past two years alone," she bit back a sob threatening to escape from her throat, "Pathetic, I know."

"Are you an idiot?" he said a little too loudly, "Why beat yourself up over something you can't control?"

He pulled himself a little away from her, only to see tears starting to gloss over her sad flame-colored eyes.

"Because, I could have done something. I could have prevented-… I could…" she mumbled dejectedly.

He knew this scenario all too well. To feel weak and powerless over something that can't be controlled, and not being able to do right what he can do, he knew how that felt. He took one look at her and briefly wondered, was that how he looked when Pitch broke his staff into two?

At that time, she looked so broken. She reached over the small child in the corner, as if wanting to at least give warmth for one last time. When her hand got close enough, she tried to touch the child, but her hand only passed through the lifeless body. At this, the tears that filled her eyes finally overflowed and ran down her cheeks uncontrollably.

"You know, I once felt that way about something," he said, hoping that distracting her can make her stop crying like how it stopped children from crying. "Back when the Guardians were battling Pitch. Sandy was defeated, my staff broke," he gestured to his discarded staff, "and all hope seemed lost."

He didn't know why he was telling her this. Sure, everyone knew about their battle with Pitch, but no one knew all the actual details of what happened then.

She was looking at with wide childish eyes, as if urging him to continue.

"I felt very pathetic at that time, but I realized that they needed me the most then. That I need to believe in myself," he gripped her shoulder a little tighter, "and now, you have to believe in yourself. Sure, the child is gone, but it's not only you who's affected, I'm deeply saddened by this too, I'm a guardian and I should be there for every child."

"Not only that," he continued, "but there are more children who needs you."

He noticed that she finally stopped crying. He squeezed her shoulders and stood up, pulling her along with him. He gave her a grin and said, "Up you go. There are a lot of children who needs warmth tonight."

She mutely nodded at him, then turned to the child. She summoned fire from her mantle before putting it over the little girl, giving her the warmth that came a little too late. She turned back to Jack and gave a nod, her determination peeking through her mourning eyes.

* * *

She worked through the night better than before: giving out flames brighter that the previous ones, flames that are warmer than what little matchsticks can provide, and flames that gave them so much more comfort than the day. They didn't stop until the sun started to rise.

She gave a heavy sigh, reflecting the tiredness overtaking her body. She turned to Jack and said,

"Jack… about what happened last night…" she stopped, looking shameful, "I'm sorry."

"What for?" he asked, a little confused.

"You know, when you had to see me hideously bawling my eyes out," she tried to make her words a little lighter, trying to mask her embarrassment from crying in front of a person she barely knew.

He snorted at her attempt at humor but took into account what she must have felt, "It's all right, you always look so hideous anyways that it didn't bother me much."

"Aw. Aren't you just the sweetest thing?" she said in a mock-flattered voice.

"'Course I am."

Jack started to walk again but stopped when he heard her voice, almost soundlessly mumbling, "Oh, and by the way…" he turned to see her looking at her bare feet, shifting her weight a few times, "Thank you."

He grinned at both of what she was saying and how she looked so embarrassed with what she's saying. He decided to enjoy teasing her a little.

"What was that?" he asked, a sly smile dancing in his lips.

"Thank you," she said a little louder, fully aware of his blatant teasing.

"Come again?" now he's enjoying this.

"You're an idiot, goodbye!" she rolled her eyes and prepared to go back home, but before she can turn into flames, Jack quickly latched an arm around her shoulder.

"Nope," he said, making a popping sound at the end of his word, "You and I, little lady, are going to have fun today."

"No thanks, you can keep your 'fun' to yourself."

"Come on, I can show you how to actually play with children." He tried persuading her with his puppy-dog eyes.

"Do I even have an actual choice?"

"Nope. Now let's go!"

* * *

**A/N: ** err... here's an update! Just so you guys know, I'll be having my preliminary exams so I won't be updating until after the 19th, but I promise to do a little something to make it up to you guys. See you!

aaand, Thank you for those who reviewed, favorited(this isn't even a word, I know), and followed. You guys make me feel all warm inside.


	7. Warm laughters,

**Chapter 7:**

"Let's go!" Jack exclaimed as he floated up, bringing Varmilda with him by hooking her by the waist with his staff.

"You do know that I am fully capable of transportation by air by myself, right?" she said, grabbing on the staff and trying to balance her body while trying to look up at Jack.

"Yup, but I'm not risking it," he said, lightly swinging his staff that carried the fire spirit, "you'll probably run away the moment I release you."

"You do know that I'm also fully capable of running away right now, right?" she asked him again and continuing, "and that I'm also fully capable of burning your staff if you don't stop swinging me, right?"

"Fine, fine." He said after realizing that she did have a point, and he wouldn't really want her to burn his staff down. "but don't you dare run away or I'll hunt you down and freeze all that flame of yours."

"Fine, fine." She said, imitating his voice and not even bothering to ask him how can he possibly freeze flames.

Upon being released, she quickly turned her little body into flames and flew beside the snow-haired Guardian. She didn't bother asking him where they would go, she just settled with following him silently, hoping that they would be done by afternoon so that she'll at least be able to have a little time to rest.

* * *

After about half an hour of flying, they finally landed in a little town somewhere on a completely different continent. She vaguely remembered the town as one of the towns that she visited only a couple of times because all of the children in the place had a home.

"So… where are we?" she said, wanting to know the name of the town devoid of the homeless.

"Welcome to Burgess!"he said proudly, "I am here to show you the best of the best among all believers."

"Uh, what?" she asked, curious about the 'best of the best' part.

"Come on, I'll show you," he said excitedly and grabbed her by the arms.

They ran together across the town with Jack dragging the clueless girl along and busying themselves trying to avoid getting hit by vehicles. They stopped right in front of a fairly sized house. Jack scooped up some snow in his hands, molded it and threw it up to the window on the second floor. He continued doing so until a brown haired boy peeked out the window.

"Jack Frost!" the boy exclaimed in happiness and peeled himself from the window. The boy soon came out of the door with an even younger blonde girl in tow, both fully dressed and prepared to play out in the snow.

"Hey Jamie, Sophie," Jack greeted the children with a friendly smile, "Wanna have fun?"

The two enthusiastically nodded and Jack ordered them, "Go get your friends."

Jack turned to his companion who just silently stared at the whole scene.

"Those kids," he gestured at the running children, "were my first believers."

His smile and the twinkle in his eyes told her that he must have been so happy the first time he was believed in.

She didn't say anything but Jack didn't fail to see her eyes soften while looking at the disappearing backs of Jamie and Sophie.

He briefly thought back to the events last night. _Two hundred twenty-eight: _That's the amount of children his beloved season had claimed, and to think that he's really been trying hard not to send out any disasters for so many years now. He took a look at his companion and remembered how she wept for the child, and wondered if she wept for every child that had passed away in all her almost three hundred and fifty year long duty. He thought that had she been believed in, she would have been a great guardian.

_That's it! Maybe… just maybe, I can get children to believe in her too._

He didn't even notice how wide he had been grinning until Varmilda pointed it out.

"Jack! Stop grinning, you're creeping me out."

He only grinned wider and said, "Oho, you'll be grinning too had you thought of the brilliant idea I have."

"I don't even want to know," she said, holding her hands in front of her in a motion that just said 'no'.

"Doesn't really matter, you're gonna find out about it whether you like it or not anyways."

"Jack Frost, who are you talking to?" He hadn't even noticed that Jamie came back and brought a lot of his friends with him."

"Are they another guardian?" at this, he suddenly found himself swarmed with questions about the 'New Guardian'.

The children concluded they were in fact a new guardian because they can't see them.

"Hmm…" Jack started after the children finally calmed down, "she's not really a new guardian, but thinking about it, she can be a very plausible candidate."

Varmilda only snorted lightly at the thought while the children only got more excited.

"She's a girl!"

"Is she pretty?"

"Who is she Jack? Who is she?"

"Do we know her?"

"Well, you children know her as Th-" Jack was suddenly cut off by the warning voice of Varmilda.

"Jack, don't you dare." She looked at him with squinted eyes.

"Well children, it seems like our mystery girl doesn't want to have her identity revealed," his fallen grin came back as he thought of another idea, and said in a quick pace, "But why don't we play a game? The first one to guess her name and sees her wins!"

Jack was suddenly hit by a thin hand at the back of his head.

"Ouch! Stop that!" his exclamation only seemed to further provoke the owner of the hands, making it hit him repeatedly.

The children laughed at the sight of the winter spirit seemingly bring beaten up by thin air.

"You idiot! You idiot! You idiot!" the fire spirit was now seething in anger.

"What? Wha- Ouch! What did I –ouch!- do?"

His question only seemed to irritate her more as she pulled on his right ear and tackled him to the ground, landing beside him. He took one look at her red face and burst out laughing, joining in with the children's chorus of laughter. Her anger gradually subsided. She took a look at the Guardian laughing on the ground, and at the children laughing at him, and gave a little chuckle that gradually turned into a laugh that seemed to make the chilly air a little warmer.

* * *

**A/N: **I'm baaaaaaack[from the exam that I was probably gonna fail in anyways. /welp there goes my future]! errrrm, here's the new chapter~ I hope you guys enjoy.

aaaand... review... pretty please?


	8. are not just for children

**Chapter 8:**

Just a while ago, it had been a far away thought for him, but seeing her now, he can say that the sight was something unbelievable, and that's saying something considering that his existence relied greatly on belief, but here she was. The usually stern-looking fire spirit is laughing. Not just merely creating a sound, but actually laughing the air out of her lungs.

He didn't bother commenting yet on her unusual display of child-like innocence, wanting to savor the sight a little longer and thinking about how it suited her. She's still a child after all, and to see her rarely show a little bit of her child-side made him sad. It was also probably what he was going to feel had it been Jamie or one of his believers to lose that childishness a little too early.

She calmed herself and let her laughter die down, but a she let a small smile linger on her face for a moment longer.

She must have noticed him staring as she tilted her head out to him as if asking him 'what?'

"Well, well, well. It's nice to see you finally acting your age," he said but quickly added an afterthought, "physically at the very least."

At that time, it didn't even matter to him anymore whether she came into existence decades earlier than him. He was older than her and that gave him the right to proclaim that he is also a lot more mature than her.

"What do you mean 'acting my age'?" her confusion only rose higher.

"Seeing you laughing like a child." He said, "You're still physically fifteen aren't you?"

"I guess, but, what does laughing have to do with being 'child-like'?"

"Well, you see little miss, what I meant is that you're still young, barely an adult," he pointed at her confused face, "and to think that this is actually the first time I've seen you laugh greatly disturbed me, being a Guardian for all children, including you."

"I'm not a child," She exclaimed, "and in case you've forgotten, I am in fact a couple of decades older than you."

"That might be it, but physically, I'm still older."

"That doesn't even have to do with anything." She said, rolling her eyes, "Besides, what about you? You passed away at what age? Seventeen? You're barely an adult yourself."

"It's eighteen, and for your information, I am an actual adult."

"Oh really? Then, how come I'm not seeing any of this 'adultness' of yours."

It was a lie, she knew that. During the time when he'd accompany her, she had seen how he acted. He was somewhat immature, yes. But, he was also contradictory smart and –for the lack of a better word- adult-like. He looked at children not just as little people he needs to keep happy; he looked at them with care. Warmth was evident in his eyes when he looked at children, reflecting his want to comfort every single one of them. But she decided that he didn't really have to know all of that, and just said,

"Anyways, what's with all this 'adultness' stuff, really?"

Jack didn't really know the answer to this one. All he knows is that she's still a child and that all children need happiness, so he naturally wants to grant her that.

He just simply settled to a shrug, and turned to join the kids who had ran away after their laughter had died down.

* * *

"So Jack, all we have to do is guess the lady's name?" Jamie asked him for the nth time that day.

"Yup." He answered, also for the nth time that day.

"Can't you at least give us a clue?" Pippa, one of Jamie's friends, asked.

Jack crouched down to their level and gestured for the children to come at him. He showed them his right ear that was now flaming red, no thanks to Varmilda's constant iron-like pulling whenever he'd try to give hints to the children.

"See this?" he pointed at his glowing ear, "The lady said that 'one more funny business and you're gonna have to say goodbye to your dear ear'" he said in a shrilly voice that made the children laugh.

"All right, well… I have a little question for her," said Jamie.

Jack took one look at Varmilda and saw her curiously peer at the brown-haired boy.

"What is it?" Jack asked the same question that was probably hanging from the redhead's tongue.

"How come she doesn't want us to get to know her?" the boy asked, "Don't people like you want to be believed in? I mean, there's Santa, the Easter Bunny and many more! Didn't you guys fought hard just to be believed in?"

Varmilda was taken aback by the words that came out of the young boy's mouth. She just simply stared at the inquiring look the Guardian of fun was giving her. She decided that it wouldn't really hurt to answer just this once, even if it was a vague one.

"Because, I find it unfair…"

The snow-haired guardian just looked at her and said, "Unfair? What do you mean unfair?"

"Jack, what did she say?" one of Jamie's friends asked.

"Unfair. She just said it's unfair," he said, not taking his eyes off her.

"You don't really have to know. I'm just like that." She said, "besides, I thought that we're here to have fun, not to interrogate me."

Taking advantage of his moment of confusion, she crouched down and delicately scooped up some snow in her frail hands, mimicking what the winter spirit had done several times before, and chucked the snowball at him.

As the snowball hit his face, the children took it as a cue to start another snowball fight. Jack decided to let the subject get dropped, and proceeded to create some snowballs himself.

"Oh no," he said, warning the flame-haired girl, "You've picked the wrong winter spirit to fight."

* * *

The day went by in a blur, and soon enough, it was already around late afternoon. The children were now at home, warming themselves up, while the two spirits settled themselves down on the bench at the local park.

He once more noticed something odd about her. After their little snowball shenanigans, she appeared to be as tired as the children were. He understood that spirits who didn't have believers tired out quite easier than those who did. But what he found odd was that even back when he still had no believers, his energy was still at least worth fifty children. He turned to look at her and said,

"You look really tired, maybe you should go ho-" he didn't even need to finish his sentence, the girl had already made herself comfortable in the bench, resting her head on its arm, sleeping soundly.

He merely gave a chuckle at her cherubic sleeping face and whispered, "You're still just a child after all."

* * *

**A/N: **So yeah... new chappie for everybody~

aaaaaaaaaand new image-thingy for the story~

...review please~ thank you

p.s. I'll be introducing a new character in the next chapter so yeah.


	9. A manly voiced baby

**Chapter 9:**

Varmilda slept soundly for a couple of hours, and by the time she woke up, the sun had already set and the air was now a little chilly. She gave a big yawn and stretched. She soon became aware of her surroundings and looked around panicking.

"Easy now, don't go around panicking like that." A voice to her left said. She looked at the owner of the voice and eased up.

"Jack, why didn't you wake me up?" she asked him. Noticing the darkened sky, she added, "and it's night time now too, you should have woken me up sooner."

"Yes, but why would I do that?" he gave her a playful smile. "Besides, it's not nice to wake children up from their naps. Little girls like you need it after all."

"You idiot! I still have my duty to do!" she shouted at him. "And, just so you know, I am not a child."

"Don't worry, it's still early." Jack told her. "Now, what would you like to do?"

"What I would like to do is to get to work." She told him in a dangerous voice. "Pronto."

"But it's still too early," he whined. "It's barely eight!"

"It's your own fault for not waking me up." She retorted.

"Oh really? Say, did you really want to be woken up?" he asked her with a sly smile. "You seemed pretty tired back then."

She didn't even bother replying when she realized that he was right. She really did feel tired after their game with the children. Like every other spirits who doesn't have believers, she also got tired easier than those who does. Other than that, she also constantly uses her ability, making her consume what little energy is left within her.

"Oh, and by the way?" he smiled at her defeated expression. "Jamie and his friends seemed to have lots of fun. Seems like you're not only good at warming children, you're pretty good at having fun with them too."

Varmilda let a small smile slip on her face.

_Fun? I like the sound of that._

* * *

Their hours of fun and work soon turned into days which turned into weeks. Jack and Varmilda spent a lot of time during the day, playing around with Jamie and his friends who were still trying hard to guess who Varmilda is. Their nights were always spent with warming up children, like the usual. Soon enough, the first day of February passed by with Jack having to go and have dinner at the North Pole.

Ah, February. That single month where sappy couples get to publicly display their affection without being judged – not that much anyways. It was the month where all the single corners of the world gets to be decorated with the eye offending colors pink and red.

Burgess was no exception with this love-fest. Even though the town was highly populated with children, that didn't stop the teens from ogling each other with 'goo-goo' eyes and giving each other not-so-secret kisses, which in turn, made children scream "Eew, cooties!" and "Yuck!", all the while, rubbing their tongues as if it had been them who kissed.

Other than the whole place looking like it was vomited on by a huge pink monster, Jack can say that the month will be a good one: the snow's still falling in some places, the children are still as energetic as ever, and Varmilda is getting friendlier, or at least getting a little less hostile.

"This place is so…" Varmilda trailed off.

"So pink? Girly? Weird? Looked as if someone showered it with lovey-doveyness last night?" Jack suggested one idea after the other.

"All of those really." She said. "Is this all really necessary? I mean Cupid isn't even a big fan of all these colors."

"I don't really know, but it seems like it's already a tradition for all these humans." He shrugged until a realization hit him. "Hold on, you know Cupid?"

"Uh… yes? She seemed surprised at his tone of excitement. "Nice little lad, actu- Hold on. Don't tell me you're planning something."

He flashed her a grin that told her he was definitely up to something. "I have nothing to tell you then."

"Jack," she said in a warning demeanor. "You, in all your mischievous glory, would definitely not want to mess with Cupid, of all people. Really, you have to listen to me."

"That seems like a nice invitation." He said, clearly amused with how animated she is talking at the moment.

"You should really know when to listen to a warning." She said dejectedly, knowing full well that he's not going to listen to him in any way.

"I'll try to learn that the next time." He's really enjoying messing around with her. "Meanwhile, you should also try and learn how to give proper warnings that will actually work on me."

She sighed exasperatedly and was about to retort when Jamie and his friends came into view.

"Peter Pan!" Jamie exclaimed.

Their name guessing game took a ridiculous turn when Jack ignored her warnings and gave the children a clue a week after their game started, that clue being the fact that Varmilda was a children's book character. Now, they won't stop greeting Jack with random characters ranging from fairytales like Cinderella and The Sleeping Beauty up to the classics like Gretel and The Little Red Riding Hood(whom which Jack frustratedly tugged at his ow hair seeing how close it was to her title already). They soon got frustrated that they started to completely ignore the fact that Varmilda was a girl, and started to suggest characters such as Robin Hood, The Wizard of Oz, and the most ridiculous one yet, Mickey Mouse.

"Nope, sorry kids _she_'s not Peter Pan either." He made sure to give emphasis to 'she'.

"Oh right, a girl." Jamie said.

"Is she Wendy, then?" asked Pippa.

"Tinkerbell?" suggested Cupcake after Jack gave Pippa a no.

"You already suggested that last week so, no." he said to her. "But, why don't you play a little bit more, maybe that way, you'll be able to remember more characters."

"All right." She said, dragging her friends along with her.

A good amount of silence fell on the two spirits after the children left them. Varmilda decided to break the silence with a question,

"Peter Pan? Really?"

At this, she and the winter spirit burst out laughing. They had a hard time calming themselves down with Jack throwing in ridiculous names previously suggested by the children. When they finally calmed down, they were already on the ground clutching their stomachs from the not-so-necessary laughing. They were about to get up when he noticed a shadow looming down on them, Jack turned to the person saw a little baby boy about the age of two. Jack was about to ask the baby when he spoke in a very surprisingly deep and smooth voice,

"Ah, Little Stern. How nice to meet you here."

* * *

**A/N: **Here's your daily dose of new chapters~ hope you enjoy!

aaaaaaand I just realized something very very very idiotic. I've left a huge plot hole. I mentioned in the first chapter that a decade already passed since the battle with Pitch, but I've still introduced Jamie and his friends as children. And for that, I apologize. I've edited the first chapter and made to so that it would only be a couple of years had passed.

erm... review? :


	10. named Cupid, appears

**Chapter 10:**

"Ah, Little Stern. How nice to meet you here." Said the baby, floating midair.

"Hello Cupid, it's been a long time, no?" Varmilda replied in a light tone.

"Yes, still as cute as ever, I see," the baby, Cupid, in a very flirtatious voice and floated lower to face the girl on the ground, "although, I'd really appreciate it if you were to call me by my actual name." his frown can be heard trough his deep, silky voice but his playful wink said otherwise.

"Whatever you say, Cupid." She replied, completely ignoring the baby's playful plea.

"So you're Cupid?" Jack seemed to finally find his voice.

"The one and only, Stanley Amores Valentine, mostly known as Cupid. But please don't call me that." Jack was about to introduce himself when Cupid cut him off. "Oh, I know you. You're Jack Frost ain'tcha?"

Jack only gave a mere nod when Cupid flew up to his face so quickly, wind seemed to hit him suddenly in the face.

"Now listen here kid," Cupid told Jack, menacingly pointing a very shiny, and very sharp arrow at his face. "I know all about your menace making reputations so you better listen to me when I tell you: **DO. NOT. MESS. WITH. VALENTINE.**"

Even though Jack had managed to laugh at Varmilda's earlier warning, he surely isn't laughing now. Not with the way the tiny baby was seemingly towering him even though Cupid's probably only one-fourth of his own height, and certainly not with the way he talks. Jack found Cupid's very scary, and thoroughly manly voice somewhat disturbing.

"Sure thing, Cupid." Jack cursed his uncharacteristic nervousness that only appears whenever he actually manages to piss North off .

"It's Stanley!" the baby said, his affectionate voice was now replaced with strictness that you would usually hear from military generals. He then flew away from Jack's space, giving the winter spirit a space to breath.

"Yes sir." Jack heard Varmilda trying hard to stifle her laughter, and whispered to her, "Oh shut up will you? Had it been you, you'll probably be peeing yourself right now."

"Probably… but not in this lifetime," Varmilda said, her face red from trying hard not to laugh. She added with a little wink, "Benefits of being a woman in the presence of the Spirit of Looooove." Purposely elongating the 'love' part.

Jack chose this moment to examine closely the spirit of love. The baby had a sandy blond hair adoring his tiny little head. He was wearing what looked like satin robes that was draped on his left shoulder, and wrapped around him below his belly to cover what needs to be covered. All in all, Cupid looked like a normal baby boy, maybe except for the fact that he is floating midair with a pair of tiny, more-or-less gravity defying wings, his suave voice, and of course his strap-on bow and arrows that must be at least twice his size.(he thought that it'll probably painful to be hit by one of those forty inch arrows)

"So, what brings you here?" asked Varmilda after she and the snow-haired guardian had stood up.

"Oh you know," Cupid- err, Stanley answered her, his 'pleasant' tone returning. "Just the usual, counting up if I've made enough arrows for all the couples around. Last year certainly didn't go well, just making sure it doesn't happen again."

Last year's Valentine's had certainly been a disaster. Stanley decided to rest a few days before his big day and completely forgot to see if there were enough arrows to go around –of course there weren't, he was at least a thousand arrows short, and well… a lot of relationships didn't end so nicely.

"Seriously though, why rely on a holiday?" Stanley asked mostly to himself in a sulkily manner. "They go busy themselves all year long to build their so called 'love' then Valentine's comes, I forget to give out arrows, then BOOM, break-up."

"Well… maybe, what they felt wasn't love at all… right?" Varmilda said awkwardly, hoping what she's actually saying made sense.

"Ah! You understand me so well, my dear." He draped his too-short right arm around her shoulder and leaned to her left ear, waggled his eyebrows and said, "How about a date as a thank you for your precious words, hmm?"

"Erm… no thanks!" she said a little too quickly. Flinching at the tone she used she awkwardly added, "Well… I mean, you know… I have duties to attend to and such. You know how busy I get during the cold."

Now it's Jack's turn to stifle a laugh, turning the most impossible shade of red she had ever laid her eyes on.

"Well… alrighty then." The spirit of love acted as if he was hurt, putting his hand over her chest. "I'm sure the Goddess of Reason will be reasonable enough not to turn down this once in a lifetime offer. Oh well, seems like this town's clear. I'm off."

Stanley flew away with a little wave, an 'See you next time, my dear!' echoing from where he went. The two spirits didn't really know what to do and just simply waved back until the spirit of love was gone.

"Benefits of being a woman, huh?" he told her in a teasing manner, his smirk growing ever so wider. "Bet you didn't expect anililagnia to be part of that."

The redhead only snorted at his comment and said, "Other than the highly disturbing mental image of him trying to flirt with various old ladies, he's pretty legal, considering that he's as old as Greece."

"So you're admitting that you're old." Said Jack, pointing out the obvious.

"Well, three hundred and forty seems old enough for me." She said with a shrug.

"Nah, you're still a little kid to me." Jack locked her head under his arms earning him shouts of protest, and a few scorch marks, but that didn't stop him from giving her a good old noogie. He did stop though, at the sound of many footsteps, telling them that the kids were back.

"Cupid! It's definitely Cupid!" Jamie exclaimed, forgetting once more that Varmilda was in fact perfectly female.

"Nope, but you just missed him though." He said, sending a knowing smirk at the disheveled Varmilda.

* * *

**A/N:** BOOM! Update!

aaaand ASDFGHJKLcupid [I hope you guys like him as much as I do.]

...aaand review?


	11. Trouble stirs

**Chapter 11:**

Excluding the fact that Staley had just visited them, Jack can say that their February was a wee bit uneventful. His biggest achievement for this month was probably getting Varmilda not to smack him upside the head anymore whenever he calls her a little kid – which isn't really much of an achievement now that she granted herself permission to call him Gramps, although, he was glad that she's much more comfortable to talk to now, compared to last month.

It had been a week ago when they last saw Stanley, and now, a half day away from Valentine's, Jack couldn't be sadder than ever. The snow had decided to melt off earlier, and Jack whose head was still ringing from Stanley's threat, decided to let it be.

Even though the snow was long gone, that didn't stop the air from getting chillier and chillier everyday, which also kept Varmilda as busy as she was during the holidays.

It was once more, one of those days that the two spirits found oddly relaxing. Jack didn't have any snow to play with anymore but they still both kept on playing with the children of Burgess, managing to get Varmilda hyped up after a long depressing night of seeing street children barely living.

After playing with the children, it had become a routine for Varmilda to go home after telling Jack the location of the town she'll be warming up later. But today, just as she was about to tell him where they'll meet, she was cut off by a little baby zooming toward her from the slowly darkening sky. She fell down with a heavy thud, and was met with the sight of a very distressed Stanley.

"Hey, what's wro-"

"Everything's wrong!" Stanley cut her off.

Jack, sensing the panic in the little blond, crouched down to their level and held the baby by the shoulders.

"What is it?" Jack asked in a voice as if he was talking to an actual child and not a pseudo-baby with a manly voice.

"My arrows…" Stanley started pulling on his hair, obviously stressed, "All of them have been snapped, destroyed till the last one!"

Jack didn't really know the importance of Stanley's arrow, all he knew was that it had always been some kind of symbol that had always been associated with Valentine's so he didn't really know what to say. Varmilda however had an idea, it was obvious by her panicking voice that Stanley's arrows are more than just some petty symbol.

"How? Who? Why?" Varmilda's questions came in short, but was perfectly understandable.

"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know," Stanley shook his head like a mad man. "All I know is that Valentine's is ruined."

He was right though. Being a thousand arrows short was one thing, but having completely no arrow left was very alarming especially when it's just hours away from Valentine's.

"Help me, please." Stanley pleaded, all the playfulness he showed last week vanished. "You two are the only ones I had a vague idea where to find. You have got to help me."

"Stanley, calm down," Varmilda said, trying to calm down herself too. "I don't really know how to fix this but, there has to be a way, right?"

The baby only managed a nod, not daring to talk, thinking he'd panic again if he were to use his voice.

"Hey," Jack said, trying to help. "Maybe you can show us where your arrows are, we'll see if we can fix it."

"No, my arrows cannot be mended once broken. Same with how one can't be used to two different people." Stanley said dejectedly. "But I can let you have a look. Maybe we can find out who the culprit is."

* * *

An hour of flying was all that it took them to get to Cupid's home in Greece. It was one of those popular buildings there, where people used to worship their Gods and such, but the spirit of love's home was hidden from the view of many, perfectly concealed in a clearing in the middle of an untouched forest.

The architectural structure of the building itself was amazing, and the inside would have probably been something they were privileged to look at had it not been littered by millions of broken arrows: some just simply snapped in half, and some seemingly trampled by stampeding elephants.

At the sight of the broken masterpieces of Stanley, the two other spirits themselves understood why Stanley had looked so troubled. Even without Stanley telling them that his arrows cannot be mended anymore, they'll probably be able to conclude themselves that all the arrows were too broken to be saved. Adding to all of those, there also wasn't a single clue about who the culprit is.

They've asked Stanley a lot of times about who could have such a grudge on him, but only Stanley's no's answered them. After about an hour more of hopeless investigation, they decided to put the hunting aside and start figuring a way out to save the day of love.

"We can go catch the culprit later, but for now it will be better if we first find a way how we will make your day go at least fairly." Jack decided to take over after Varmilda and Stanley agreed that he probably knew what to do in this situation considering that he encountered such disasters before. "First of all, I need to know what your arrows does, considering that it is in fact, a playing a huge part in this occasion."

"Well… you see all those lovey-dovey couples littering around?" asked Stanley, earning him a nod from the other two. "Well… all my arrows do, once it hit them is make sure that a little 'coincidence' happens, setting everything up."

The confused looks from his spectators made him go on and give an example about how two teenager, just simply looking at each other lovingly gets the sudden urge to kiss the other after getting hit by the arrow and nudged forward only to have their lips meet. The snow-haired and the red-haired guardians gave a nod, encouraging Stanley to give another example. He started telling a story about how a hit of an arrow by the hand can give an awkward teenage the courage to hold the hand of the girl he had been aiming for. He wasn't really sure they understood it all, but he was relieved when Jack said,

"I think I've gotten the basics about this arrow thing, but we'd probably understand it a little more on the field." Jack said, a tone of doubt lying behind his confident exterior.

"But what about my duties? I still have to warm up children." Varmilda said wearily, not having given the chance to go home and rest for a while.

"But Valentine's doesn't really get celebrated until morning, so while it's still night time we can go around and do the usual, and by morning, we can help Stanley. We can just apologize to the children about not meeting them later on."

And with that, they were all set for what they dubbed as the upcoming most disastrous Valentine's Day that will ever happen.

* * *

**A/N:** Well, here's an update! And erm... free crappy mini-Jack doodles to those who will be able to guess who the culprit is...?

aaaand, to Dannie, about the chapter 9 ending, no they weren't hit by Cupid. They were on the ground from doubling over, laughing, then Cupid just kind of appeared, spotting them. Sorry for the misunderstandings, I'll try to be clearer in the next chapters.

aaaaand... review?


	12. in the Dark

**Chapter 12:**

After their little planning back at Stanley's temple and reassuring him that they will be back before sunrise, Jack and Varmilda set out to one of the towns near it to see if there are children who needed warmth. With Jack's help, they found less and less dying children in the alleys, most of them were found by him before they can be taken by the cold.

The less death, however, didn't stop the air from being so tensed. Varmilda had been doing her job a little groggily due to the lack of proper rest. Jack tried to offer to take over the child-seeking for the night but the stubborn girl refused on many occasions.

"Are you sure you don't want to rest for a while? Really, just give me some of those matches and I can do well by myself." Jack tried to offer help for the nth time that night.

"I've already told you, no one can do my job better than I can. I'll manage," she replied, her irritation shown clearly in her voice- but whether it was because of Jack or her tiredness, she didn't know.

She had always been grateful for Jack's help. Although he tends to baby her, that didn't stop her from seeing him as a blessing sent in the form of a very annoying old geezer, so when he saw him flinching at the tone of her voice, she decided to change the topic to avert his attention.

"Who do you think did all those to Cupid?" she asked him, "he can be annoying and all, but I don't think he would be annoying enough to have someone to actually hate him."

"Well… I've just known him so I'm going to have to trust your words about him not being able to actually have someone to hate him, and taking your words into account, what if the culprit didn't have an actual grudge at him?" Jack gave a little sigh at the confused look on his companion's face. "What if this person just wanted to ruin Valentine's just for the heck of it or something…"

He himself noticed his voice faltering at the doubt. Both of them were aware that they didn't think anyone would be mad enough to mess with another spirit for no particular reason, but Jack himself had done it to Bunnymund(accidentally, of course). But this situation didn't seem to be anywhere near to an accident.

"That is a possible reason…" she said as she entered an alley, and continued after she got out moment later. "But… it seems impossible all at the same time. I mean… err."

She trailed off; not really knowing how to explain what is going on in her head at the moment.

He knew what she meant though, it seems like a plausible reason but there seems to be a missing link: who could have done such a thing? Just then, a light bulb seemed to click inside her head. He turned to the redhead, he thinks that he now had a vague idea of who the culprit is.

"Hey, Varmie…" she scowled at the nickname but let him continue. "What if it's Pitch? It seems like a Pitch thing to do."

She seemed to agree to his suggestion, but she had a few too many questions in her mind.

"If it's Pitch, why would he decide to come back now, just two years after he was defeated? Didn't it take him decades to get back the last time?" she asked him, making him rethink his accusation. "And… wasn't he a spirit for children too? Stanley is a spirit far away from children; he handles romantic love that doesn't really appear until a person is out of their young phase, usually starting at their teenage years…"

"You're right, I guess, and I don't think Pitch would be foolish enough to get out of the dark a little too early."

With that, they went back into flying in silence; the air still heavy from the two spirit's brooding.

* * *

The night ended a little too quickly for their liking. Even though Varmilda hadn't had any rest for two nights straight now, her tiredness was quickly replaced by anxiety over the day they were supposed to be saving. The air at Stanley's temple was still as heavy as the last time they visited there, but Stanley seemed a little better than the last time - at least he wasn't a panicking mess anymore.

Stanley, whose waist was now strapped not with his usual bow and arrow but a leather bag, led them into a town near his temple. The town was as regular as the other towns the two have visited before. It was decorated with hearts and flower, all in the color of pink and red. They perched themselves on top of a little café where couples, both young and old, littered the place.

"So…" Stanley started, still with his deep voice. "First off, I better give you two an example before letting you two set out on your own. Watch closely."

The two spirits could only nod, and watch the baby with excited and yet, worried eyes. They saw him swoop down on a teenage couple, whose hands were both fidgety as if eager to hold each other's but still quite shy to do so. Jack and Varmilda concluded that they must have been a new couple: they were a little awkward, but not uncomfortable, and obviously in love.

Stanley snapped his fingers to get the attention of the two spirits to him, and in a swift motion, he held the couples hands and put them together. Before the embarrassed couple could pull away from each other, he opened his leather bag and sprayed the couple with glittering peach-colored powder. The couple seemed to grow bolder and gazed at each other's eyes, no longer embarrassed. Stanley flew back to the two and started to explain.

"The powder I used on them is called the Love Powder. It intensifies the romantic feelings between two people who are in a semi-deep emotional contact such as holding hands and –for the lack of better word, ogling," he breathed heavily at the end of his explanation. "This special powder is the only ingredient that is used for my arrow, creating an arrow, however, is a long process but definitely rewarding because it makes everything quicker."

"Without my arrows, we will be forced to do everything manually just like how I did before," Stanley handed the two spirits a little white satin pouch from his leather bag and said, "Those pouches contains the same powder I just used. I trust that you two wouldn't make a mess with such a little amount of powder."

He gave a deep breath and said,

"I think we're ready. Come on now, we'll go from town to town but split up as we get there. Now, shall we?"

At this, the spirit of love took off and left the two behind.

Jack glanced at the couple that were 'bewitched' by Stanley's powder and grimaced.

"I don't think I'm gonna enjoy this."

Varmilda took one look at his grimacing face, smirked and said,

"I bet I will."

* * *

**A/N: **Beep. Beep. An update coming through. Hope you enjoy.

btw, I originally planned for Pitch to be the main villain in this story, but I figured it would be too cliché and other than that, I found another based on a Dutch legend.

aaaaaand review?


	13. Bonus Chapter: A Very Merry Christmas

**NOTE: **Hullo guys~ You're probably annoyed by my pestering now, but here's a little gift for the Holidays.

It's kind of a alternate to this story, I'm not really planning for them for be together that early... but, I don't know. So, here's a little special oneshot thingy~

* * *

**Bonus Chapter:**

It was Christmas Eve and Varmilda couldn't feel any lonelier. It had been almost a year since she met Jack, and became friends with him. He had annoyed her endlessly at first, but she soon found his company to be comforting. To her, he became a little light in the dark nights where she would have to search for children plunge deep into the cold night.

It was also one of those nights, except Jack wasn't here. The snow begun to fall a little while ago and it was just her luck that Jack had to go and visit North for the Guardian's annual Christmas Feast. Jack had told her the news in the sad voice she hated.

She didn't know why, herself, but she's always hated it when he frowns. To her, his happy face was like his default one, and she can't actually picture him not smiling. She hated that. She hated how she didn't know what she actually feels about him.

When they first met, she found him to be nosy and generally unpleasant. She found him childish and immature. She had actually asked herself a few times why she kept up with that boy for a whole night.

On the second, she thought that even though he was annoying, he was very good at comforting people. At the time, he let a girl that she barely knew cry on his shoulders and proceed to try and comfort her the next minute.

On the third, she decided that it wouldn't be that bad to be friends with him after all. He was good with children and had helped her a lot with warming street children on cold nights.

What she didn't know, however, was when she fell for him.

Yes, fell. She, Varmilda Flamme Stern, had fallen for the snow-haired spirit that she had always so lovingly called Old Geezer.

His presence had always provided her with comfort, but now he wasn't here. He's not here to hold her through a death of another child. How she wished he was here, but he wasn't.

Little did she know that Jack was also was also wishing the same thing.

* * *

Sitting on one of the many tables in North's dining hall, Jack found himself wishing that he was out of there, for the first time. He's always complained about the place whenever they meet just to annoy everyone, but now he was actually wishing to go out of the same workshop that he'd always been so fascinated with.

He drummed his slender fingers on the table, impatiently waiting for Tooth to finish her meal that she ate in a very delicate manner. The dinner had to be cut off soon, he knew that because North still has his deliveries to do.

While waiting there, he found himself thinking back to the red-haired spirit that he usually dutifully accompanied on cold snowy nights like this one.

Perhaps he's always known why he accompanied her the first night they met, or maybe he didn't. He's always told himself that he only befriended her because of her amusing way of answering and also because of how tough she looked despite her frail body, but sometime after that, he saw how weak she can be. He saw how much of a child she still is.

He started to actually want to be her friend when he saw how much love she held in her eyes when she looked at the cold children I front of her, he thought to himself then that many children would have probably liked her had they known who she is.

He started treating her like a sister when he saw crying while ripping up a copy of The Little Match Girl. He didn't know why she did that but all he knew was she felt weak at that time and that he had to comfort her.

Another thing that he knew was when he fell in love with her, it was when she had gotten angry at him for his immaturity: that was when he saw her, not as a child, but as an actual adult woman that she had always been.

He was brought back to reality with the sound of North clearing his throat, greeting them a Merry Christmas, and excusing himself from the table saying that he still had a duty to do.

Jack rose moments later with one thought in mind: Varmilda.

* * *

Taking a little rest, Varmilda sat on a wooden bench in the park of a little town in England. She had grown tired quite early, having gotten used to Jack taking half of her workload. She shook her head, _it's not the time to be thinking about Jack._

She had relied on him a little too much for her liking, and now that he wasn't here, she found herself brooding. Her little feet kicked the snow lightly, scattering them. She held her hand out toward the falling snow flake, only to have it melt a few inches before it reached her.

She really missed him now; she missed the cold air that he brought with him. She missed how his presence would make her own abnormally high temperature lower; she missed having the temperature of an actual human.

With a sigh, she stood up, only to have a hard gust of cold air hit her in the face. The air twirled itself around her, and with a hopeful look, she turned around only to be met by the sight of emptiness.

_He's not here after all…_

"Looking for someone?" a voice said from behind her; a voice that she knew, belonged to Jack.

She just stared at him, a smile dancing on her lips. Her eyes were a mix of relief, gladness, warmth… and love.

"Thought I'd let you be alone on Christmas Eve, didn't you?"

Without letting her answer, he took a step towards her and gave her a smile, his eyes bluer than she had ever seen. He lightly shook his standing staff from side to side, his eyes motioning hers to look up.

There, tied to the tip of his staff, was a mistletoe. Her face grew warm at the sight, but she let her face show an even wider smile. She looked back at him and gave a little chuckle at his equally warm face.

He took another step towards her, this time, having the tips of their toes meet. He leaned his face nearer to hers, giving her an Eskimo kiss. For a while, they just stared at each other's eyes then leaned in closer and closer until their lips met into a gentle, and blissful kiss, his unnaturally low body temperature and her unnaturally high one melted together, creating the perfect warmth that neither froze nor burned either one of them.

They pulled away just enough to see each other's eyes for a moment and leaned in again for another warm and loving kiss.

_Maybe… just maybe, this Christmas wouldn't be as lonely as I thought after all._


	14. Love is

**Chapter 13:**

The two were left by Stanley to deal with his own matters. It's their first village and they all knew that there were a thousand more, so they had to split and hurry up. Unlike Stanley, they were both unable to touch any of the people in the place so they just settled with sprinkling powder over the couples.

Varmilda was still quite unsure of what to do, so she started out small with shy teenagers who were gazing at what she could safely assume as their love interests. A little sprinkle of the powder and she's already created what could possibly be six new couples, and due to a few little slips, two new broken couple(which caused her a scolding or two).

She was new to this, she knew and accepted that fact whole heartedly and tried to take things in baby steps. Jack, however, had a different idea:

Claiming that he was just simply taking in the spirit of Valentine's, he started prancing around from place to place, barely looking at who he hit with those powders given by Stanley. This, as expected, created a teeny tiny trouble, that trouble taking the form of a teeny tiny and obviously angry Stanley. (That's a mouthful)

Stanley had to fix everything all by himself since none of the two actually knew what to do, but was quite relieved that Jack hadn't really done anything long lasting.

Stanley flew over to Jack, his face red with seething anger. He took hold of the winter spirit's ear and pulled hard. Jack had completely forgotten how Stanley was the first time he met him and this just seemed to bring him back to that day.

"**LOOK. AT. ME. KID.**" Stanley roared, his deep voice booming. Stanley seemed to remember that Jack has volunteered to help him and sighed, speaking calmly this time, he said, "Love is not something you joke about. You do not mess with love, and you do not mess with Valentine. Got it?"

Jack just dumbly nodded at him, and from the corner of his eyes, saw Varmilda shaking her head with a sigh.

"Come on now, Stanley." Varmilda said to the baby, "I'll take him so that you won't have to worry anymore."

"Let's try to be serious this time." Varmilda told Jack as if he was a kid.

"Oh well, I guess fun's over." Jack said nonchalantly

* * *

Work has been hard for them, halfway into the day, they had already ran out of powder with about three hundred more towns to visit. It wouldn't have been a problem actually, except Stanley, who was working at a faster pace than the two combined, had also ran out and had to fly back to Greece.

They were currently in Japan, so they reckon that Stanley will probably take at least an hour to come back. They didn't leave them with nothing to do though. They were asked by Stanley to round up and spot all the couples that they saw (which wasn't really a hard task).

Before Stanley left, he handed them a piece of fabric from his robe each. He explained to them that it will allow them to touch a person if the person has enough romantic feelings inside them, exactly how he was able to touch people.

"You're going to go even more manual," Stanley said, "I trust that none of you will mess up this time."

With that, he flew off, leaving the two to themselves once again.

"And I thought sprinkling was bad enough." Jack complained loudly to his companion. "I'm the Guardian of Fun! What part of all these is supposed to be fun?"

"Cheer up, at least you hadn't done enough damage to those couples a while ago," Varmilda said, pouting lightly, "I guess my woman's privilege ran out."

"Well… we better get to work…. I guess…"

They did their task painstakingly, but Jack had considerably lightened the mood, pretending to retch every time he had to touch another couple, but after a while, the magic of his jokes seemed to die down and they were forced to work in silence once more until He had another idea. They decided to turn their task into a little competition, telling her how it got him hyped up back when they had to collect teeth for Tooth.

They had their little fun and started to actually enjoy what they were doing.

Just like they had predicted, Stanley came back a little after an hour. What they didn't predict, however, was another spirit with him – make that two.

"These guys are Jack Frost and Stern," they heard him say to his companions; Stanley turned to them and said. "And these are my old friends, Baby New Year, and April Fool. I bumped unto April who gladly called Baby."

The young spirits took a look at their new companions. Baby New Year was nowhere near a baby at all; he was almost as tall as Jack and as pudgy as the generic Santa Claus. He did kind of have a baby face though, so they just left him with a little 'hi'.

April Fool didn't look like a fool at all. He was wearing an expensive looking suit with matching fedora. Upon seeing the confused looks on their faces, April quickly explained that he didn't really like dressing up without any occasion

"They'll be helping us out with Valentine's; I've already explained to them the mechanics." Stanley continued. "How's your progress?"

"We've already cleared out most of the city, and we're ready to move unto the next," Jack said to him.

"Good!" Stanley beamed at the white-haired spirit. "Let's go on then!"

* * *

They managed to do the tasks much faster this time, due to the help of Baby and April. By mid afternoon, they were almost done. It wouldn't take them long now, they knew.

It was already around eight o'clock when they reached their last destination, and half an hour after that, they were down to one last couple.

Jack and Varmilda found themselves together in a cozy café. It was where the last couple were. The said couple sat side by side, just looking at each other. It didn't take a genius to figure out what they had to do. They dived to get to the couple first, but figured out that it will probably take them nowhere, so they decided to do it together.

"Shall we?" Jack asked, his hand hovering at the head of the man.

"I think we shall." Varmilda answered her hand near the woman's head.

They pushed the couple into a loving kiss. It was a cute moment actually, but then Jack decided to retch one last time, earning him chuckles from the red-haired spirit.

Stanley thought that he can't thank them enough. After about a hundred thanks and a dozen date offers, he finally let everyone go, not forgetting to give Varmilda one last date offer.

After they escaped Stanley, they both gave a deep sigh, relieved that their task is finally done.

* * *

**A/N: **Love is... an update

hope you enjoy~!


	15. Red

**Chapter 14:**

"Whew! That was hard work." Jack said, stretching his arms above his head.

"And I still have a lot to do!" chorused Varmilda, shoulders lightly slumping at the thought.

"Don't worry, I'll help you out." Jack put her in a light headlock that she escaped from quickly.

"Now that I think about it…" she started, "You're not that bad, you know."

"Who? Me?" Jack snorted at her words. "Puh-lease, I'm the best Guardian there is."

"Please remind me never to compliment you again," Varmilda rolled her eyes at the snow-haired boy. "Wouldn't want you head exploding now, do we?"

The two floated and set off towards the sky, eager to finish their duties quickly.

* * *

Hidden deep within the shadows of an alley on the street where they shot off from, two piercing red eyes stared at their retreating figures, looking at them menacingly.

"_Snow white and Little Red, huh?" _the owner of the eyes chuckled humorlessly. "_Looks like some bad kids need to be punished."_

In an instant, he disappeared, leaving a long lasting howl piercing through the night.

* * *

"What is it?" Varmilda asked the white-haired boy who was looking around frantically.

"Oh, nothing. I just thought…" Jack shook his head, effectively shaking off his paranoia. "Never mind."

Varmilda gave a little shrug and simply continued flying.

Jack scanned the area for one last time. _It was probably just some kid and a dog, _he thought. The wind suddenly felt colder and blew harder, almost giving him a warning but not quite. He pushed the bad feeling away.

About after a few hours, the sun started to paint the dark sky with its light, and the two spirits were just about ready to drop dead from exhaustion, especially Varmilda who hadn't had even a little rest for three nights in a row.

After a few days since Jack introduced Varmilda to Jamie and his friends, their classes had started, only meeting them after classes, but they've always had the whole day during weekends. Today, unfortunately for Varmilda, was a weekend, giving her with literally no time to rest.

Three days of no rest finally took a toll on her. As they were floating above the sky, Jack noticed that his companion's flame was not as bright as before, it looked as if it was ready to be extinguished.

"Hey, I think you should go home and get some rest." Jack told the huge withering flame that was Varmilda.

"Sure," she didn't even protest to his suggestion as she was really tired. "Tell Jamie that I'm sorry I couldn't come."

"Just go, I'll handle it." Jack said with a little wave, urging her to go. "Go and take a nap, kid. You obviously need it."

"Aw, thanks gramps!" she tried to joke despite her exhaustion, and flew down to find a fire big enough to use for her transportation.

She found a lighted fireplace and quickly disappeared into the flames, making little sparks go off.

It only took Jack a quarter of an hour before he reached Burgess. He flew faster this time without Varmilda being tired and having to slow down every hundred miles.

He easily spotted the mop of brown hair that he knew as Jamie, and quickly flew over to him, bringing a strong gust of chilly wind along with him.

"Jack! Where's all the snow? And… oh- Queen of May…?" Jamie asked the older boy.

"Sorry about the snow Jamie, it melted off early and well, I don't think it would be wise to mess with Valentine's." Jack said, and added. "She's not the Queen of May either; she's not even here actually, she said she's sorry for not meeting you though."

"What? Why?" it was one of Jamie's friends who asked this time.

"She's tired, Valentine's mishaps and all," he said with a shrug. "We can't really play any winter game this time, but wanna play something else? You can choose whatever you want this time."

"Wait, Valentine's? What happened?" Pippa ignored his last words and asked him excitedly, with a somewhat dreamy stare.

Jack never really paid attention to it before but now, looking at these children, he saw that they were starting to grow up. Pippa for example, wouldn't have given Valentine's a single glance back when they first met, but now…

"Cupid met a dilemma, and Varmilda and I just volunteered to help him fix it," he said, pushing the sad thought away.

"Erm… how old are you guys?" Jack asked out of nowhere.

"We'll all be turning thirteen this year, except for Mark, he's turning fourteen by the end of November," Jamie pointed to his tall and tan friend who always wore a beanie. "Why ask, Jack?"

Jack gave him a sad smile and shook his head, "Nothing… I was just curious."

"Oh…" Jamie said awkwardly. It was obvious that something was bothering the Guardian, but he decided not to pester him about it. "Wanna play hide and seek, Jack?"

"Sounds fun!" he said, beaming at the brown-haired boy and letting himself be engrossed with the joy the day was about to give him.

_I just hope that they don't forget about me…_

* * *

A few minutes were all it took for Varmilda to get to her home at Denmark. She emerged from a huge bonfire in the middle of a deserted village. The town looked a few hundred years old: it was tattered and obviously unoccupied by anyone but the red-haired spirit.

Every inch of the town emitted an aura of old age and time. A lot of houses looked battered: windows smashed and roofs caving in, but she didn't mind. To her, it was home – her home.

The town used to be a wonderful masterpiece and it still it for her. The ground itself was something to behold, a patchwork of bricks that glittered in the moonlight. This marvelous ground, however, was covered with hundreds of newspapers all on the same page, and all containing one story. The only place without the three hundred and forty year old newspaper was the circle of space around the bonfire where Varmilda let her body collapse as a heap on the ground due to tiredness.

She was just about to fall asleep when she felt eyes on her. She lifted her head and looked around, her eyes alert. She caught a little flash of red to her right, but she was unsure whether what she saw was real or not. A distant howl reached her ears, and she calmed down in an instant.

_There can't be anyone else here. It was just probably some wild animal._

* * *

**A/N: **Awooooo~ Update's here! Hope you guys enjoy!_  
_


	16. April Fool's

**Chapter 15:**

_On an old and patched up bed, a very worn-out but a very beautiful woman lay resting, basking in the light of the moon. Her waves of chestnut hair were sprawled on the tattered pillow and her emerald eyes were hidden by tired and heavy eyelids._

_From the house's patched-up roof up to its dirty floor, it was easy to tell that the woman was poor. She is indeed lacking financially, but she didn't mind, not even when she's on her bed, withering away from their lack of money to pay for her medicine._

_The wooden door of the woman's room creaked lightly, telling her that someone had entered. She opened one eye and saw a little copy of her walking towards the bed. It was her precious daughter, her only child._

"_Mama, Papa's home," said the happy voice of the five year old._

_The woman can't even manage any response; her voice had left her long ago. She just stared at her treasured daughter and motioned her to come over. The little girl perched herself on the side of the bed and hummed as the woman lightly stroked her hair._

'_Varmilda, my precious Varmilda,' the woman thought. 'So tiny, so young, so sickly, so unfit for the cruel world.'_

_She didn't want to leave her, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Her only comfort was the thought that she'll be leaving her daughter with her husband and mother. _

'_They'll take care of her.'_

_For a while, the little girl just stared at her, and moments later she seemed to have heard and understood the unspoken words of her mother. The little girl's eyes started to well, clouding her vision of her precious, beautiful, and equally sickly mother._

* * *

Varmilda had woken up with a start. It took her a moment to realize where she was: on the ground of her little village in Denmark in front of a blazing red fire and not in her mother's death bed. She felt something hot in her face and lifted her hands to be met by tears.

_A dream…? No – a memory._

She sat up and shook her head, giving herself a minute to wake herself from her disoriented state. What year is it? _Around 2000's. _Where am I? _Denmark. _What color is the sky? _Blue. _She shook her head once more, this time for asking herself such stupid questions.

What date is it? _April 1__st__, April fool's day._

She took a look in the sky and concluded that it must be around eight in the morning. She remembered that she had to meet Jack at Burgess today.

_Jack_

She lightly grimaced at the thought, briefly remembering how he looked so hyped up last night about April fool's. Oh, he was excited alright, excited enough to start an early celebration of pranks and mischief.

She could only dread what was to happen once she comes in Burgess. Honestly, she doesn't even know how she handles his all around hyper activeness, much less why she hangs out with him in the first place.

With a big yawn, she turned her body into flames, she was aware that there would probably be no sane person would light up their fire place in the time of the morning so she stretched her arms above her, preparing herself for about an hour of flight.

* * *

She reached Burgess a little earlier than she expected. She almost forgot how faster she gets after getting past the tiring winter seasons. Her days became the complete of what she did before, though still unseen, she was still able to have fun.

She scanned the area but was unable to find Jack, perhaps she was a little too early because Jack wouldn't have been so hard to find with all his white hair and his paper white skin. She flew down the park where they always meet and settled herself unto the bench.

She didn't know if it was just her intuition on her paranoia but something felt wrong. There wasn't a single child in the park and it was as dead as the rest of the town, which was odd because it was rarely empty at this time of the day and it was a weekend too.

She stood up from the bench to look around; she barely turned her head when a water balloon hit her in the face followed by more water balloons thrown at her general area. The water inside the balloons was cold so upon touching her abnormally burning hot skin, vapor started to rise up from where the water touched her.

Another one hit her square in the face and made her fall into the ground, swearing loudly as her buttocks hit the ground.

"Watch your language, kid. There are other children here," that mischievous voice came unmistakably from Jack.

"Yeah, children who can neither see, nor hear me," the soaking girl retorted.

When the water balloons stopped coming, she looked up only to see Jack with the children behind him. From the way the children's bodies were positioned and the spare balloons on their hands, she can tell that they had thrown the extra balloons at her.

"How did those kids manage to hit me?" she asked incredulously, the last bits of water on her skin finally evaporated.

"Like this," said a smirking Jack, who threw another balloon right into her face.

That must have been the cue. The children started to pelt her once more and throw water balloons to where she is. Finally annoyed, Varmilda turned herself into flames and flew up.

"Hey, that's unfair!" Jack called out. "Come back here, will you?"

"Unfair my ass," she shouted at him. "What part of pelting a fire spirit with water is fair?"

"Um… the April fool's part?" Jack said acting as if he did nothing wrong at all.

"April fool's, huh. I'll show you April fool's."

With a flick of her hand, flames started to appear around her. Snapping her finger into Jack's direction, the poor white-haired boy soon found himself being pelted by fire. She directed the flames to his feet which made him look as if he was dancing.

Suddenly remembering that he too, can fly, he lifted himself from the ground. He saw the children laughing at him; Jamie was even lying on the ground, clutching his stomach.

Varmilda was grinning so widely that she thought her jaws would break. She saw Jack glaring at her and grinned wider. Her grin fell when she saw one of his hands place itself in front of his lips, ready to blow a snowflake to her way. Her eyes widened and the next minute she was on the run with Jack hot on her tail.

Laughter filled them once more, making them not notice how dead the town seemed to be especially since it was the day of practical jokes and laughter.

* * *

**A/N:** Whoooosh! An update! Enjoy!

aaaaaand a sneaky peaky of Varmilda's past.


	17. a disaster

**Chapter 16:**

The Guardian of fun finally cornered the redhead floating in-between the space of a bakery and a toyshop. In an instant his hand flew in front of his space and blew a snowflake into the flaming girl's direction. The snowflake didn't even melt even after it touched her face.

Varmilda floated downwards in a slow swaying motion. Her skin stopped blazing once she touched the ground. She looked up at Jack's expectant face, then looked down at to the entrance of the alley where James and his friends stood, panting from following the two spirits in their little chase.

Jack started to become nervous over her lack of reaction. He fidgeted with the staff on his hand until he decided to go to her. He was just about to move down when a blur of red passed by him. He blinked a few times and took a few seconds to process that the red blur was in fact Varmilda who was now shooting into the air, her normally mature sounding voice replaced with an unusually childish squeal.

She twirled around in air a few times before she faced him. Even though her whole body was covered in fire, he was able to recognize her smile behind her voice.

"Weeeeeee! Jack, look at me! I can fly!" she said as if it was her first time flying.

"You've always been able to fly, remember?" he wasn't sure, but he thought he heard her say 'oh, yeah' and 'silly me'.

"Hey Jack! Look at this!"

From Varmilda's hands, little flames in the shape of butterflies appeared. Her creations fluttered and swooped down to circle around the children who watched in awe her little display. The butterflies kept their distance from the children to prevent them from burning.

"Careful, those are hot-" he stopped midsentence and looked at the floating blob of fire who was laughing hard. "Wait. They can see all these butterfly-stuff?"

"Yup!" a weirdly upbeat voice answered him. "The only thing that they won't see other than me was any fire that came from my mantle."

He simply stared at the girl, surprised at how happy she looked right now. _Does that mean that all the children she helped before were able to see those butterflies? _He became confused but quickly shook the thought away when the girl called out to her.

"Hey Jack! Watch!" from Varmilda's hands appeared another set of butterflies, but this time she threw them up into the air until they can't see them anymore.

A few moments later, a loud booming came from the sky. Jack looked up to see that the butterflies had gone off like fireworks.

A chorus of "Whoa!"'s and "Cool!"'s came from Jamie and his friends.

Another 'boom' came and the children erupted into fits of laughter which forced Jack to look up, only to see his own face in the sky with the words 'Jack is an Old Geezer', to which, he couldn't help but laugh at, even if the insult was meant for him.

Another series of loud banging came and soon enough all of the children's faces were in the sky, seemingly written in fire.

It would have been a perfectly happy moment, had it not been interrupted by a frantic nasally voice coming from the air.

"Could it be? Could it be?" said a voice in a heartbreakingly hopeful manner.

Jack didn't almost recognize the owner of the voice. The person in front of him wore a jester's outfit made up of diamond-patterned cloth in red, green, and yellow, he also saw a jingling jester's hat under the person's arms.

The happy looking clothes of the man looked like the complete opposite of the expression that he was wearing; he looked ready to tear his own green hair out.

This man was none other than April Fool, even without the expensive looking suit, his fedora and his pulled back hair, it was still April, Jack was sure of that… or was he?

"April…? Is that you?" Jack asked the jester. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Varmilda floating next to him, no longer laughing.

"Yes," he replied, positively disappointed at the sight of them and the town.

Jack turned to look around to see what made April so disappointed. It didn't take him long to realize what it was, the streets were empty and April fool's day celebrations seemed to be nowhere in sight.

"What's-?" Jack can't even formulate an actual question, but it seemed unneeded as April had answered him,

"Yesterday, I spent the whole day planting all sorts of tricks all over the world and now…" he looked around and pointed at the ghost town. "It's a disaster! None of them had gone off, I don't know why but –ARGH!"

"H-hey now…." Varmilda tried to calm the green-haired spirit.

"Someone's been sabotaging the holidays, I'm sure of it," came April's suddenly business-like voice.

"How can you be so su-" Varmilda was cut off by the jester's explanation.

"First it was Groundhog, then it was Valentine's, St. Patrick's came next, and now April fool's!" he exclaimed, arms waving frantically in air.

"Wait… Groundhog and St. Patrick's?" asked Jack, obviously in shock.

"Oh yes, Ground had a hard time getting out of his burrow, he said all his exits were blocked," he started explaining. "You already know all about Valentine's and I've heard that had it not been for alcohol, St. Patrick's would have completely flunked!"

"And now…" he continued, "my day of pranks had gone wrong, only a handful of people are celebrating!"

"Calm down, we can still fix this," Jack took a hold on both of the taller man's shoulders. "Just like Valentine's we can save April fool's. We'll help you."

"Y-you will?" the grown man may look absolutely ridiculous right now with tears glistening over his usually sharp eyes but he didn't seem to care.

Jack looked at Varmilda as if asking her to agree and play along, to which she responded with a nod.

"Oh thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" he engulfed Jack into a crushing hug and was about to move unto Varmilda until he saw her flaming body and thought otherwise.

"Err… well, how exactly are you going to help me…?" April asked, unsurely.

Jack, upon realizing that he had no idea quickly tried to formulate plans in his head, April looked like he was about to tear up, Varmilda was just confused how she got dragged into this, and the children below them looked just as confused as the redhead. A light bulb seemed to light into Jack's head and made him said in the most obvious tone ever,

"Well, April fool's about pranks and fun right?" he asked, to which the other two just nodded dumbly. Jack looked over to the children briefly and said. "In case you didn't know, I'm a great prankster and I'm also the Guardian of Fun."

* * *

**A/N: **Here, have an update

aaaaand to Dannie: no, I wasn't sleeping, it's just I can't really reply until the next chapter and OMFG Pinay ka din! BTW, salamat sa reviews mong nakakapagpataba ng puso[at nakakapagpalaki ng ulo, lol]! Here, take my virtual hug.


	18. to fix

**Chapter 17:**

"In case you didn't know, I'm a great prankster and I'm also the Guardian of Fun."

At his declaration, he shot off into the roads of the town signaling the children to follow him. He only stopped for a moment to turn back to April and Varmilda.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Come on," he said, turning to the street once more and into the direction of the town's commercial district, leaving the two spirits to shrug and follow him unsurely.

He stopped in the middle of the town and perched himself on top of a statue of a man, a woman, a child and a dog. He rested his staff in his right shoulder and clapped his hands together, still balancing his wooden staff.

"So, here's what we're gonna do," he said, a tiny hint of leadership behind his voice. He pointed at the children who were currently panting from all the running. "I want you kids to go and get all sorts of noise makers and prank stuff that you can grab then meet me back here, all right?"

After the children nodded and scrambled to get all the items needed, he then, turned to the green-haired and the red-haired spirits who stood just in front of the statue.

"You two… well, April, what do you usually do during April fool's?" he asked the jester.

"Isn't it obvious? Join the fun!" April threw his hands above his head, a grin on his face. "Create all sorts of toys and pies! Join in the pranking and laughter!"

"Then that's exactly what you're gonna do," he looked over to where the children have gone and turned back to April. "Those kids are going to come back here with all sorts of April fool's stuff and you'll join them and cause mayhem all over the town, then we move unto the other towns that we need to cover."

April nodded eagerly. Jack turned to Varmilda and explained to her what her task will be.

"Varmie!" he started out excitedly but faltered when he couldn't come up with a task for her and her fire.

Varmilda looked at him expectantly and muttered a little 'what?' to his face, scrunched up in thought. It was obvious, he was thinking where she would fit in without burning down a house or two.

He scratched his hair around until an idea hit him. "Your fireworks! Just make them boom everywhere, and add a little April fool's greeting here and there, that would be perfect and you wouldn't have to burn down a single house!"

After he has given his orders, the children all came back running, all sorts of prank items and noise makers. Jack went down and took some for the kids and handed them to April and asked in a not-so-discreet whisper,

"Hey, you wouldn't mind if I make it snow a little would you?" then turned to Varmilda who was about to protest and said, "Don't worry; I'll try not to make it too cold."

"Ha! I'm no Stanley! Go ahead!" April answered the boy who was as excited as he was.

Jack turned to the children, clapped his hands together and said,

"I think we're all set. Come on, we still have an April fool's to fix."

Everyone took that as a cue to run around like mad men. The children parted down the streets creating all sorts of fuss and noise, some of them even bothered to bring water balloons and threw them to unfortunate passer-bys.

Varmilda shot off to the sky looking as excited as everyone, though no longer 'weeeeeee'-ing and squealing.

April looked the most wonderful among them. With his jester hat back on his head and a look of determination on his face, he was ready to cause mischief.

Jack had also shot off to the sky, opposite of Varmilda's direction and sent millions of frosted flakes down the bland town, casually flinging a special snowflake or two from time to time. He was well aware that spring would be starting soon, but he didn't care. After all, this would be the last winter for this month.

Their sudden eruption of wildness must have alerted the people, since many of them had come out of their hiding to look at all the fuss. It didn't take them long to join in the fun. Young and old, everyone immersed themselves in the happiness from jokes and tricks.

After a few fleeting minutes, the three spirits have mutually decided that it was time to go to other towns. Jack gave the children a little wave, goodbyes and thank yous from both April and Varmilda.

By the time they were done, the day had been long done and the snow have long stopped falling, making it cold enough for the ice to stay,, but warm enough to give Varmilda a little break.

"Thank you very much Jack. Thanks to you too Varmilda," said April who had discarded his jester outfit and changed them back into his tuxedo and fedora. He shook hands with them for a while and went off, leaving the two other spirits to wave at his disappearing form.

"Hey Varmie," Jack turned to Varmilda after April was out of their sights.

"Hm?" was her short response.

"Easter's coming up soon right?" he didn't know why he was doing this for Bunny after the bantering he had with him, but he was sure that he at least deserved a sabotage-free holiday. "I think we should inform Bunny about all these."

"Sure. Prevention is better than cure after all."

"Wait. I think it would be better if we were to tell all the other Guardians as well," he suggested.

Varmilda's body went rigid at his suggestion. She waved her shaking hands in front of her, laughed nervously and said,

"Y-you know what? I think you'll do fine on your own. I'm not even a G-guardian so I don't think I'll be needed there, and oh- you know how I need my rests and yeah. Beside's you'll be enough to explain all of these stuff. You're the Guardian of Fun; you'll do well on your own."

Her eyes were practically pleading him not to make her go.

After her little rambling has ended, Jack was looking at her ridiculously as if unable to believe it was her who was currently speaking in front of him. She was fidgeting with her mantle and looked everywhere but him.

"That's exactly it!" he said, making her flinch and look at him. "I don't think they'll believe me just being, well… me. It can be explained better I were to bring an eye witness."

"Oh, no. no no no no no," Varmilda said, eyes wide and shaking her head in disapproval. "You're just going to warn the other Guardians, not go to some trials in the court, you don't need any eyewitness for that.

"What!? Come on! What's the matter? We're just going to the North Pole."

"Nope, no way, nadda, nuh uh," she said stubbornly, turning her head away from him like a child.

"Oh well, I never asked for your permission anyways," he said with a shrug and pretended to turn away from her.

Varmilda's relieved sigh was cut off by no other than Jack Frost who has thrown her on his right shoulder while resting his staff on the other.

"Hey Wind!" he called out happily. "Take us to the North Pole."

And with that, they took off, Varmilda's childish protest drowned out by the strong breeze that lifted them.

* * *

**A/N: **Varmilda's finally meeting the rest of the Guardiaaaaans~ Hope you guys enjoy!

aaaaand I _might_ not update tomorrow[I have a project to do] but I'll try.

p.s. thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and follows. Have a nice day.


	19. The Guardians

**Chapter 18:**

Five minutes into their flight, Jack had pondered for about the tenth time why doesn't he just chuck Varmilda away. _Oh, right. Eyewitness, _he suddenly remembered. You can't really blame him though, had you been the one to hold the ever-so-squirmy and oddly out-of-character girl on your shoulder you'd think about flinging her away into somewhere far too.

"Jaaaaaaaack! Let me goooooooo." whined Varmilda. She had gotten tired of all her squirming and settled to thumping her fists into his back.

"Noooooope, no chance," he said to her, annoyance evident in his voice. "Don't you even dare turn yourself into fire; you know well it won't work."

Oh it didn't work all right. Not when you're being held by some boy who was colder than the Arctic water that did well in neutralizing the flame erupting from the girl he was holding.

The girl was silence for a few minutes before going back to talking.

"Hey Jack," she called his attention. "You know, had we been humans right now, I could definitely have you imprisoned for this."

Jack just simply snorted at his friend's words and said, "Unfortunately for you, we're not humans."

Their flight had gone on like this for a few more minutes, and it took him a particularly strong breeze and a smack to the face to put her away from his shoulder. Their flight would have been better had this particular breeze didn't even gone their way, really.

They were halfway into their journey to North Pole when this particularly annoying breeze came. He didn't even know what called that breeze here, either it was purely coincidental or it was because their words jinxed it.

"Jack," Varmilda started again, a mere minute before this breeze came by. "Can't you at least give a girl some decency?"

"Nah," he replied nonchalantly. "You're decent enough"

"I don't think you can hardly call a girl with her butt sticking into the air decent."

"Pffft. What's there to see under some little girl's skirt?"

It was at that moment that the really particular, annoying, counter-flowing, worth for nothing, and all curse worthy breeze came by and smacked something right into his face and blocked his view. Of course, he being caught off guard did the first thing that came into his mind: fling the offending object over his shoulder, which wouldn't had been so bad had it not been Varmilda's skirt.

He supposed Varmilda was caught off guard too, the girl had shouted so loudly that he thought they can be heard to North Pole, and of course, he being off the edge from all the holiday mishaps didn't help either. He tried to reason out, _well, what would you do if a girl by your side screamed like a banshee?_ Simple, you'd look at her too, which, again, wouldn't had been so bad had it not been Varmilda's skirt that he had flung earlier.

That little head turn had earned him a reddened and swollen cheek, which was obviously not caused by a fire but by the girl's palms. He didn't even know how she managed to turn her body around in what may be the most uncomfortable position ever and slapped him right in the face.

After a round of apologies and awkward remarks, he had finally settled in putting him down from his shoulders except he still didn't let her go off on her own, instead, wrapped his an arm around the small of her back and used the other to lock her knees along with her skirt, preventing her and the cursed skirt from flying away (his staff tucked in between his and her body).

The awfully awkward moment kept the girl silence for a while, it wasn't until they had started to see icebergs from a distance that she started fighting for freedom again.

"Come on Jack, let me go!" she protested and started squirming away again, adding arm flailing for extra annoyingness.

"Just – stop – will – _hey!_ –you?" he had to cut off every word to avoid Varmilda's bony arms and hands. "Now stop being awfully uncharacteristic will you? None of the Guardians are going to eat you."

She would have responded to that had they not been in front of North's work shop already. Their trip took less time than she expected, not even an hour had passed yet, a whole lot of minutes less than it took her to go from a country to another. Which made her wonder, _had he been purposely slowing down to match my pace before?_

Still in midair, Jack waved down to the two yetis that were guarding the entrance and they immediately let him in.

"North! North!" he called out, and flew into a place she assumed he knew he'd find North.

Varmilda didn't even get the chance to look around as Jack entered a large room with a huge globe in the middle. North, who was standing in front of the globe, turned around to face the winter spirit who had startled him.

"Jack, what in the world are you doing here?"

Jack settled Varmilda nicely on her feet, but still refused her to escape, firmly gripping her wrist. He turned to North and said,

"Are the other Guardians here?" he asked him in between deep breaths that were undoubtedly caused by Varmilda's fuss earlier. He felt Varmilda go rigid beside him once more. When North answered him with a shake of the head he said, "You better go get them, this is important, especially for Bunny."

North didn't even bother to give him a second glance, Jack's alert voice was more than enough. North turned to the table of buttons in front of the globe and pulled up a conspicuous looking lever.

Had it not been such a tensed situation, Varmilda would probably gaze stupidly at the waves of spectrum in the sky through the high window in the room. Instead, she opted to keep her head down and force herself to breathe properly, and keep her evident panic away.

Jack noticed his companion's odd behavior turned into something more… odd. Before they got here she wouldn't stop shouting and now that they were here, she seemed to go mute in an instant. It wasn't just Varmilda who was acting oddly.

North who finally looked at Jack properly suddenly noticed what he had been carrying a while ago. He also noticed that what he had been carrying was not, in fact, an item but a girl. A very familiar girl clad in red. At the sight of her, the huge man's voice softened and glistened with an expression that Jack was sure he had never seen before.

* * *

**A/N: **Ohohohoho! I still managed to update! Enjoy~

aaaaand... did the start of the chapter seemed filler-like or something...?

Edit: Hullo there, sorry for the lack of updates. Can I ask a tiny favor? Can you please like this photo? It's for our project and I'm pretty desperate. Thanks guys!

facebook photo . php ? fbid=525641230788127&set=o.466876606709830&type=1&relevant_count=1

aaaand this one too:

facebook photo . php ? fbid=468397116557779&set=pb.466876606709830.-2207520000.1357349211&type=3&theater


	20. the Girl

**Chapter 19:**

A few minutes of tenseness was all it needed before the other Guardians arrived. Tooth and Sandy went in through the window, while Bunnymund came from a hole outside and entered through the Workshop's door. All the Guardians stayed alert as they positioned themselves next to North.

It was Tooth who spoke up first.

"North, what's the matter? Is it about the…" she trailed off, completely forgetting to check his teeth due to the emergency.

"Jack has something to say," he said, motioning to the white-haired Guardian. "Perhaps it's also about what I announced a while ago."

_A while ago…? _Jack thought, then, it dawned on him. _It was the first day of the month. I was supposed to have dinner her at the North Pole._

As they noticed the winter spirit for the first time, they also noticed that there was a severely tensed redhead next to him, and just like North, they seemed to suddenly stop and hold an unfamiliar expression.

"Someone's been sabotaging the holidays," he started. "First it was just Cupid, then, we recently ran into April who told us that the Groundhog and St. Patrick were sabotaged too."

North looked just looked at Jack and told him in a calm manner, "We know, Jack."

Jack, already expecting North to no believe his statement jumped in disbelief and said, "You have got to believe me, look I even brought Varmie as a witness."

He continued on his rant until he finally realized what North had just said, _"We know, Jack."_

"Wait. You do?" he asked, not believing his ears. "How did you… I mean."

"_We _do," he said unhappily, emphasizing on the 'we'. "I talked about it to Everyone. A few hours ago. During dinner."

"I'm sorry for missing dinner," he said guiltily, rubbing the back of his neck. "I had to go help April."

At this, North seemed to be less unhappy with his absence during dinner.

"You see?" Varmilda spoke for the first time at the Workshop, but not quite looking at anyone in the eye. "They believe in you, you don't need someone else to testify."

"Now if you'll excuse me," she said, bidding everyone farewell with a curt nod, eyes still avoiding everyone else's

"Wait," North's heavily accented made Varmilda halt and finally turn to him. Seeing her confused face, North answered her unasked question, "This concerns you too."

Those words seemed to trigger a series of reactions: Sandy's eyes looked downward and bit his lips, Tooth looked at Varmilda with a pitying expression, and Bunny just turned away from the girl.

"What do you mean?" Varmilda asked, becoming more confused by North's statement.

"You see…" Tooth said in a soft voice, seemingly hoping to make the bad news a little lighter on the small girl. "Well… It's just-"

"It's Oude Rode Ogen," Bunny cut Tooth off, obviously wanting to deliver the news as quick as possible. Tooth looked at him in a disbelieving expression and he said, "What? There's no way to deliver the news lightly, sheila."

"No!" Varmilda exclaimed, all previous tenseness replaced by a mix of anger and fear. "What do you mean…? That- that can't be- didn't you- how?"

"It's true, dear," North said as if he was talking to a fearful child. He took a step forward and held up his hands, trying to calm down the girl who can barely form sentences. "We don't know how it happened too, but we'll try to get him as fast as we can."

Jack, having been finally frustrated with the overall oddness of his companions' actions tonight, shouted,

"Can someone tell me what is happening here? And what's with all the tenseness?"

Sandy finally looked up and let his sand above his head to sculpt a little chair.

"Good idea, Sandy. Why don't we all take a seat and settle down first?" North said, in a forced jolly manner.

After settling themselves on the chairs in the humongous dining room, Jack asked impatiently.

"So, who's this Oude guy?" he was obviously impatient to hear about the news that was unfortunately left out of.

"Oude is another spirit like us," North gestured to everyone in the room. "He was known to mortals as Old Red Eyes."

"How come I've never heard of him?" Jack asked as North stopped talking, obviously wanting to end the conversation there.

Now, Jack really wasn't the one to pry- or maybe he was, but he knows how to stop when someone is already uncomfortable, and judging by the looks of everyone in the room, they were as uncomfortable as a man lying on broken glass, but really, if you were to be left out on something as big as this [as Jack concluded based on the way everyone was acting tonight] wouldn't you do everything to find out about it too?

"The guy's been gone before you were born, mate," Bunnymund said, and added as an afterthought, "Birth as a spirit, I mean."

"Then how come Varmie knows about him?" he kept asking like a little child finding something unfair.

"I knew him personally for the first decade and a half of my immortal life before he was _locked up_," she answered before anyone else was able to say anything. Nobody felt like saying anything anyways, perhaps thinking that it was only proper to let her answer a question concerning her.

Jack scratched his head in frustration. Nothing seems to be making sense and none of the answers he was provided made anything better.

"This isn't really something easy to explain, you see," Tooth told Jack, trying to ease his frustration. "It's a very long story."

"I've got time," Jack said determinedly.

After a long pause, North finally decided to break the silence with a starting cough.

"Oude was a spirit for children," he started. "He's about a couple of hundred years older than you."

"He had always been the villain," North said. "No- not that way. He had always been a very kind man, but children feared him due to adults who made up scary stories about him."

"Despite all that, he did very well on his first hundred year, he loved to keep the children safe and sound even if it meant that they would have to see him as the bad guy." North talked about him like how a person would talk about an old friend. There was a friendly nostalgia in his voice, but suddenly seemingly remembering something horrible, he uncharacteristically sneered.

"Nobody knows what happened though, but he suddenly gone crazy. He started being an actual villain."

* * *

**A/N:** I humbly apologize from the very bottom of my heart for being such an asshole and not updating for over a week, and hereby promise a longer next chapter to compensate.

[Phew, here's an update guys! I thought the first school week after holidays was going to be all so-so but no, professors just had to dump new sets of works over their students' cute little heads]

On the other hand, I was too busy falling in love with Oude's back story so, yeah...?


	21. and the Dog

**Chapter 20:**

_The harsh whisper of the wind, an occasional low growl, and the soft crunch the pure white ground made as soft paws laid on it was all that can be heard in the frozen wasteland. The owner of the huge paws trudged through the snow in a slow pace, its raven black fur contrasted greatly with the great canvas of snow before it._

_The huge dog soon reached a wooden workshop that stood seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The dog's vibrant red eyes scanned the door and the pair of the yetis guarding it. The yetis swept their eyes over the dog before giving a nod and opening the workshop's great wooden door. The dog stepped inside and scanned the place with bored eyes._

"_Oude, my friend! It's so nice to see you again!" the dog, Oude, was greeted with the sound of a heavily accented voice and the sight of a huge Russian man in a red outfit. It was North._

* * *

"Like I said, he used to be such a good man. Little did I know how much of a dog he really was," North said in between his story, gritting his teeth the slightest. "But I suppose I should have seen it earlier."

Jack looked over to Varmilda who, like him, watched and listened to North with every bit of attention she had. It occurred to him that this was probably a new piece of information for her too. The other Guardians didn't seem to know about this part too, but it was obvious that they already know more than enough to not pay as much attention.

"He was a really huge dog, but even then, nobody thought he would ever be able to hurt a fly, especially in his human-image. He looked kind-natured, that dog did."

* * *

_Oude lifted his fore limbs up in the air and stood in his hind limbs. In a slow-paced manner, his long black fur shortened back to his body and showed his animal skin, his now exposed wrinkly pinkish skin was pulled back and turned into smooth light olive ones, his long snout shrunk back forming a face with well-defined features, his huge dog stature stretched further until he was standing around seven foot tall._

_On the dog's previous spot now stood a tall man in a white long sleeved button up shirt, a pair of black formal trousers and black leather shoes. He looked like he was in his early-thirties. The man had exotic features; from his short shaggy black hair, deep set eyes, straight nose, thin smirking lips, and up to his stubble on his otherwise smooth face, he looked very handsome._

"_It's nice to see you too, North," he replied, his smirk turning into a genuine smile._

"_What brings you here?" North asked shortly after offering Oude a rest in the warm sitting room by the blazing fireplace._

* * *

"Wait, so he's a dog and he's a man?" Jack asked confusedly.

"Yes. As a dog, everyone can see him. Everyone young, I mean," North said. "But only fear-filled children saw him as a man."

"So, he's huge and scary but he was also nice," Jack said, still a bit confused.

"Not only that, but he _was_ very polite too," North continued where he left off from describing Oude as kind-natured. "He used to love kids very much, and had always been very enthusiastic whenever he saw one who is not afraid of him, dog or not."

* * *

"_I'm really sorry about not visiting and all, then coming here unannounced but," Oude took a deep breath and gave North a sheepish smile, the corner of his eyes wrinkling a little, "I wanted to give a present for a little child I saw today at Denmark, she seemed a little too sad, you see."_

"_Ha! No need to be embarrassed about that!" North said, patting his friend on the shoulder from his place across him. "Every single child deserves gift, even if it's not Christmas, and I bet he saw you didn't he?"_

"_Not really," Oude replied but not one bit sad. "I just thought she just really sad."_

"_What do you want me to get this child?" North grinned to his companion. "And may I at least know of _her _name?"_

"_Her name is…" __**I don't know her… **__"Bloesem."_

"_Such a cute name, do you think a flower headdress would be fitting?"_

"_Certainly."_

* * *

"That was the day everything started to change," North said grimly, he looked like he didn't want to continue anymore.

Varmilda had an unreadable look on her face.

Jack was about to tell him that they can stop at that when Tooth decided to take over.

"This Bloesem girl…" Tooth trailed off, eyes fleeting the slightest bit over to where Varmilda is. "She seemed very special to Oude."

* * *

_A little over a month passed after Oude's last visit to the North Pole, he came back again, just in time to catch Tooth visiting North too. He walked in on them talking in the same warm sitting room. _

"_Hey North!" Oude waved lightly to the huge man and noticed the colorful woman next to his large friend. "Hey Tooth, nice to see you here."_

"_Hello Oude, come here! Join us," North motioned for him to come towards them._

"_Hello there Oude, how's your teeth?" Tooth enthusiastically replied and quickly added. "By teeth, I also meant your well-being."_

"_No worries Tooth," Oude chuckled. "Both my teeth and I are fine."_

"_How's Bloesom?" asked North. "Did she like your present?"_

"_Yes, she seemed very pleased," he replied brightly but quickly looked down. "But that's exactly why I'm here again."_

"_Bloesom?" piped Tooth. "Who is she?"_

"_A little girl Oude found," North replied to Tooth before turning back to Oude. "What is it? How's she?"_

"_She looked very sick today," Oude said sadly. "I'm really sorry for visiting here only whenever I needed to, but she just seemed to be nowhere near fine."_

"_Oh no, that's no problem at all." North waved at him, a look of deep concern etched on his face. "The girl is sick? Perhaps another present can cheer her up and make her feel better."_

_With another box of present, Oude set off from the Workshop back to the little girl in Denmark. A few months passed and he was back again, and again, and again with different reasons every time. It became some kind of a ritual, a bond over North, Oude, and the little girl. North wasn't bothered one bit about spoiling a child but he did wonder about his friend._

_Years passed and soon enough Oude didn't even needed to give any explanations anymore; North had taken part on doting on the little girl that he didn't know, even the other Guardians gave their fair share of doting too. The girl had already received a number of gifts, dolls, shoes, accessories and all that they can think of, they gave it all to her. _

_It was unfair to give so much attention on a little girl they barely knew about apart from the information that the girl had brown hair and beautiful green eyes as described by Oude, but it didn't matter because they were happy, they were making a child happy, and they were making their friend happy._

_To North and the other Guardians, it had been a cute little habit, but to Oude, it had quickly become an obsession. _

_Their little habit quickly ended soon though._

* * *

"I got very curious soon enough after three years of doting on blindly someone unknown," North decided to take over once more. "I wanted to meet the child. I asked Oude about her, but he refused every time."

"I tried to help out North because like him, everyone else was curious," Tooth continued and looked at Sandy and Bunnymund before adding. "Even Sandy and Bunny participated in tracking her down."

"What happened?" asked Jack as the redhead next to him slowly became more uncomfortable.

"Turns out the girl didn't exist." It was Bunnymund who answered him.

"What?" Jack asked his nth question that night.

"That's exactly it," North said. "I checked the globe; no child by the age of eight in Denmark had the name of Bloesom."

"There were also none of her teeth back in my castle," Tooth said.

"She never celebrated Easter either," said Bunnymund.

"We thought that maybe she just didn't believe," North looked disappointed. "But even Sandy couldn't track her down, but Tooth however, found something very surprising in her teeth search."

"What is it?" Jack asked again.

"It was the teeth of a child by the name of Bloesom," Tooth started. "It wasn't a common name so we found her easily, the description of her appearance helped too."

"Well, you found her, what's wrong?" Jack asked, becoming impatient.

"The girl had been dead for over two centuries already," said North in a final sounding voice.

* * *

"_What is the meaning of this!?" North exclaimed as Oude entered the workshop._

_He and the other Guardians decided to confront Oude after they found out the trick their friend had been pulling off._

"_What's the meaning of what?" Oude asked, worried._

"_This Bloesom of yours, that's what!" North knew that he was not being himself right now, but he didn't care. He felt betrayed._

"_You searched about her!?" Oude was now getting angry too. _

"_Yes, and more than searched," Bunnymund shot him a dirty look. "We found her. Dead. Two centuries ago."_

_Oude looked so lost of what to say and what to do. He just stared at all of them with a guilty face and sorry eyes._

"_How can you do that, Oude?" asked Tooth, hurt apparent from her voice. "Weren't we your friends?"_

"_You are- but."_

"_That's enough," North finally regained his calm composure. "I'm sorry Oude, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave."_

* * *

"We know that we didn't act the best during that time, but we really felt stabbed," North confessed.

"We didn't hear from him for a while… until."

* * *

_Seven years passed after the incident, when Oude came back once more in North's Workshop. This time though, he was crying. He was begging for help. He was on his knees pleading to North to give 'Bloesom' one last comfort, but North was having none of it._

_North felt betrayed by his good friend for lying to him and he coming back for more just made him more furious than ever. He drove Oude away forcefully from the Workshop and into the cold night._

_Oude begged and pleaded up until the last minute before he stood up, brushed himself and said, _

"_She needs me."_

* * *

"That was the last time I saw him as normal as possible," North said, linking his hands in front of him. "The next time I've heard of him he-"

A loud howl broke North's next words, and in an instant the Guardians had all stood up.

"Wait!" Varmilda's shout attracted the attention of the occupants of the room. "If he's back… then my children…!"

Just as Varmilda was about to bolt out of the room, North grabbed her by the shoulder and said, "What do you think you're doing? He might attack you if you do anything reckless."

"I don't care!" Varmilda shouted defiantly. "Me being hurt wouldn't compare to what my children would have to experience once more!"

"That lunatic, I won't let him hurt anyone again."

North gave a sigh to the girl and turned to the snow-haired spirit.

"Jack, accompany little Stern here," North ordered him before looking at Varmilda again and saying, "I'll go around and stand guard too. We don't want _that _to happen again."

"I can look around as I collect teeth," piped up Tooth. "And my mini-fairies can help too."

Sandy just motioned with the sand over his head images of what looked like an eye, streets, a dog, and a whole lot more jumbled in between, but everyone got the message.

Then, all the Guardians turned to look at Bunnymund who just smirked and said, "As if I'd ever lose to Frosty over there."

Varmilda shot them all a very grateful look, and offered a little smile. This time, she was prepared for anything to come.

* * *

**A/N: **Woah! I made it to 2000 words! It's not much, but it's an achievement for me.

aaaand to ate Guest from 1/1/13: Sorry, medyo magulo ba? So bale lumipad lang yung skirt ni Varmilda dahil sa pagkarga sa kanya ni Jack and yeah. Thank you sa pagbasa, btw.

aaaand to LeafeonLover: No, you're right he's just not famous. I didn't even know he existed before I started searching for potential villains in this story. [Ah, the things writing makes a person do] Btw, thanks for reviewing :3


	22. Bloesom

**Chapter 21:**

"The first one to see him warns the other, all right?"

The first one of the Guardians who took off was Tooth. She waved a little goodbye before shooting out of the workshop. Next was Sandy who created a hat made of sand and bowed, tilting the hat lightly before taking off. Next was Bunnymund who smirked at Jack and said, "First to catch the Dog wins," before disappearing into a hole from the ground.

"Catch the dog, he says," Jack scoffed.

"Now, now Jack," said North.

Jack and Varmilda turned to look at the huge man. Jack gave North a wave and said, "See you," while Varmilda gave a small and polite smile and nod.

"Off you go," North waved them out after returning Varmilda's polite smile. "I'll follow later."

* * *

"You know, I think it would be best of we split up," Varmilda suggested after two hours of flying and searching for any signs of the Dog.

"That is the dumbest idea you've ever had so far," Jack replied, "Far dumber than the way you were acting back at the North Pole."

"Speaking of which, why were you acting so oddly back then?" he asked seriously before reverting to his playful self. "One minute you're all rigid then you go throw a tantrum and… are you sure about your mental health?"

"Why are you so nosy?" Varmilda asked him her over-used question. First he was just exaggerating, now he's actually questioning her mental health? "And why not split up? I know I fly slowly but I can use fireplaces as a means of travel. We can get more things done separately."

"You don't fly slowly," Jack dropped his previous question for now. "And North entrusted you to me, and I'm not going to give that kangaroo any reason to go smug about failing to do such a simple request."

"How touching, I can feel all your actual concern for my well-being," Varmilda deadpanned.

"Nah, just kidding," Jack said and attempted to ruffle the girl's hair before realizing that she was burning. "Little girls shouldn't be left alone unattended."

"Whatever you say, Gramps."

* * *

From above the skies of Europe, the Sandman held himself high in the air on a golden cloud made of sand. His eyes were closed, and his arms were spread widely. From his hands, more sand shot out. He directed his sands in a very fluid dance. He made sure to deliver good dreams and good dreams only.

Sandy's night had been uneventful, but that was until he felt a sudden disruption. It gave him a sick feeling knowing that someone had disrupted a dream he made. It didn't feel the same as when Pitch tried to turn his dreams into nightmares. It was very different. He can see it clearly; the child at the receiving end of the disrupted dream had dreamt about _him, _the child had met _him._

Taking the revelation calmly, Sandy conjured four waves of sand and ordered them to search the others, and headed off into the direction of the dreaming child.

* * *

Zooming through the air of Asia in zigzag patterns, Tooth scanned briefly for any sign of her old companion. Two hours have passed but still, her search was still as unfruitful as the first minute. Not only that, but her mini-fairies are just about to be done for tonight's teeth-collecting.

With a sigh of defeat, she set out to come back to the North Pole to rest, but just as she was about to fly away, a flash of red caught her eyes.

She flew around in place frantically, trying to find the source of the eyes of the ever so familiar shade of red. As she turned her head to an alley, she saw a pair of vicious red eyes glaring at her, glowing so vibrantly it seemed to peirce through her, but the feeling faded away as quickly as it came when the eyes' owner started to walk away.

Quickly summoning four mini-fairies and asking them to find the others, Tooth set off to follow the owner of those red eyes.

* * *

Bunnymund continuously popped in and out, city to city from his pseudo-human sized holes. From the North Pole he went out and searched America state by state but found nothing of importance, and then went to England to do the same.

Two hours later, he found himself in Australia. He's now starting to get annoyed with his wasted time on the search that was obviously not working out for him, but he forced himself to continue, he can't afford to lose to Jack afterall. That kid really annoyed him to no end, and he'll never admit it but he can never really hate the Guardian of Fun, the same goes for North too, despite the Russian man's constant arrogance and persistence in proving that Christmas was better than Easter.

As he let both his eyes, body and mind wander freely, his thoughts drifted to a completely different person, a person he never thought he'd hate: Oude.

He had always found Oude to be the best with conversations and words, and that's saying something considering the number of hundreds of years he had spent with countless other spirits. Perhaps it was because Oude died around the age of thirty but he'd always been so mature and reserved.

Bunnymund never thought that his old friend would be someone he was now. He never thought that Oude can be as twisted and as obsessed as that, to be able to delude himself into thinking that his 'Bloesom' was still alive. But Bunnymund had to admit though, from the picture of Bloesom on the case of teeth from Tooth, that both the 'original' and the 'fake' Bloesom' looked hauntingly alike. What shocked him the most, however, was that he never thought that this 'fake Bloesom' would turn out to be—

His thoughts were interrupted by a low growl from a dark corner of the street he was currently in. had the owner of the growl been a regular dog, Bunnymund wouldn't even be bothered. What made this situation different though, was that this dog had red eyes that pierced through the darkness of the night.

He didn't have any means of contacting the other Guardians but he guessed he didn't even have to anymore as he saw Sandy's golden sand and one of Tooth's mini-fairies came zooming to him.

At first, he was relieved by the thought of Sandy and Tooth coming for him, but moments later he realized that both the sand and the mini-fairy didn't come to bring help but came to ask for help.

_But Oude is here._

He turned to the dog and saw that it turned away to run, and Bunnymund, not knowing whether to go to Sandy or to Tooth, decided to follow the dog before it gets away.

* * *

A comfortable type of silence enveloped both Jack and Varmilda for a long time. Jack, perched on top of an electric line, lazily watched the redhead, bored out of his mind. Varmilda, on the other hand, looked like she aged a few more hundred years from the obvious stress, and fussed about the littlest signs of life around them.

"Varmie, just go take a break," Jack whined after a sigh.

"Take a break?" Varmilda glared at him from below. "And what? Risk the safety of _my _children? Nope, I don't think so."

Jack didn't even hold back a smile from forming on his lips. He knew he shouldn't and that she's already angry, but it just really amused him to no end when she refers to street children as hers like how a mother talks about her daughter.

"Quit randomly smiling, you creepy old man!" Jack heard her shout. Unable to hide his amusement any longer, he laughed out loud and flew down next to her.

"Varmie, Varmie, Varmie," Jack shook his head while clicking his tongue. "You should really learn how to relax and pull that stick out of yo-"

He was cut off by a small flying object to his face and knocked him, making him land on his behind. At first, he thought that it was just Varmilda's fist but he thought that whatever hit him felt a little too fluffy and feathery. He opened his eyes and saw baby Tooth flying over his head, tugging his hair and motioning him to follow.

Humor and lightness now all gone, Jack turned to Varmilda and said, "We better use the Wind."

She didn't argue and just simply nodded, but before Jack was able to call the Wind, Sandy's golden sand appeared before them. The two spirits looked at each other and mutely agreed to split up. Jack went off quickly and followed baby Tooth while Varmilda followed the golden sand.

Merely five minutes into flight and with Jack already out of sight, Varmilda was stopped by the feeling of someone following her. Turning her eyes and scanning the roofs of the village, she saw a familiar black dog on top of a closed flower shop.

Feeling rage taking over her, she charged at the dog with her burning body. The dog morphed and turned into a human and caught her as she collided with him, his hands holding her arms, letting her burn him. In her state of pure rage she clumsily managed to create a few butterflies to ask for any help but before they got far, she let them die out as the man behind her held her closer and whispered in a whispery voice,

"Please stop, _Bloesom_. Please stop."

* * *

**A/N: **Hey guys! Sorry for not updating for so long. [School and stuff... yeah]

And... I's probably going to stop updating everyday and just update every week instead. yeah.

to Q-A the Authoress: Ah, I was just explaning to the anonymous reviewer a few stuff she found confusing on chapter 19. Thank you for the reviews.

to Jane Frost: Haha yes, proud Pinay po : Taga-Mandaluyong po. Salamat sa pag-review

aaand to Dannie: Sorry, kakakita ko lang nung review mo and sorry sa pag-delete. Di kasi tamang magpost ng personal information anywhere sa internet, and medyo bata ka pa. Thank you ulit sa review.


	23. Bonus Chapter: Of Shoes and Valentine's

**A/N: **Please take note that this is some kind of an AU for my story.

* * *

Red. Red. Everything and everywhere was red. It kind of hurts his eyes now. He blinked once, twice, trying to rid of all the redness around him, but to no avail, the place was still littered with the cornea-burning color. He looked up, looked down but everything was still red, wait… it's not just red, there were white too, oh and **pink**.

_Ah, that's right. _It was Valentine's Day. The day of the little blond abomination that he liked to call Stanley Valentine. Having been alone for more than three hundred years, he had all the time in the world to think about all sorts of things, including the point of Hearts Day, but alas! Three hundred years was not enough for him, but that just might be him being unseen and all alone during the day of lovers.

It's different this time, though. This time, he had someone to spend this day with, someone to accompany him on the day he used to dread. Now all that he has to do is to find that someone. It shouldn't even be a problem, actually, except that the redness of her whole being just practically blends in everywhere… Oh, and also because he might have kind of made her mad… a little… or a lot… last night.

He can't even remember what they fought about in the first place, which isn't really unusual because bickering and fighting were already part of their everyday routine. The old and sappy souls like North and Tooth thinks it's cute but he just can never see how having a regular verbal war with your girlfriend can be considered cute. Yes people, he used the _g word_. After their Christmas episode, they've already established a mutual understanding of how much they like each other and had agreed to date, but that doesn't mean that they're going to stop their teasings and general bickering. On the contrary, they got worse as they were now able to open up more to each other and hide nothing about their feelings.

Ah, that's right. He now remembered why they were fighting in the first place, and after last night, he now concludes that opening up and teasing did not go well together. If you're wondering what he meant by that… well, Varmilda might have let slip the _L word_ last night out of nowhere, and Jack just might have laughed it off thinking it was some joke. He just had to learn the hard way that Varmilda was, in fact, not joking. And now she's very much mad at him.

"Brooding around on the day of Love, Little Jack?" said a deep and masculine voice from his right.

_Great! Perfect! Just the person he wanted to see the least. The abomination himself._

"Stanley," Jack said, barely acknowledging the floating infant.

"Had a fight with Little Stern?" he said in a barely concealed happy voice that he matched with a smirk when Jack just grunted at him. "Does that mean she's now free?"

"Please don't bother me right now," he replied to the pseudo baby who has the hobby of attempting to date everyone that can be put in the female category. Please take note of _attempting._

"That won't do, that won't do at all," Stanley said while clicking his tongue. "Nobody should be sad on _my _day."

"Go bother someone else," the white haired guardian said a little impatiently.

"I can help you," said the smiling little blond.

"Go away." He might have been at fault but that doesn't mean that he'll be any less stubborn.

"That's too bad then. She really seemed to like you a lot," said the spirit of Love before breaking out into a dreamy voice and saying, "I can see it in her eyes, I should know. I'm the Spirit of Love."

"Do you know where I can find her?" Jack cut him off, fearing that Stanley just might break out and turn this day into a musical. That and he just want to be all right with Varmilda again.

"Well… That's…. Um…" Stanley said while twiddling his thumbs together. "Nope."

"Great!" he threw his arms upward.

"Well excuse me; I'm the Spirit of Love, not the Spirit of Missing Girlfriends!" Stanley defended himself. "Besides, I'm just here to give out advice, you know. First piece of advice, your dirty jungle boy appearance won't do."

"Jungle boy!?" Jack said, very much offended.

"Yes! Jungle Boooooy," the little blonde said while gesturing all over him.

"What do you think I should look like then, Mr. Spirit of Fashion?" Jack said while eyeing Stanley's satin tunic disdainfully.

"Meet me here at six, and I'll bring everything you need," Stanley waved him a little farewell, before disappearing into the sky.

* * *

Jack made himself comfortable on top of a little picket-fenced house while dutifully waiting for Stanley to come back. He was now starting to regret ever taking up Cupid's offer because, really, who in their right mind would trust an infant with a demonic voice?

He wanted to just go and run away but stayed at the same time because from what he knows, Varmilda and Stanley were really close… or at least close enough for Varmilda to tolerate the bubbly-looking abomination.

"There you are!" Jack heard Stanley's voice from somewhere far. The Spirit of Love plopped himself beside him and said, "Sorry for being late, you know how busy I get during Hearts Day."

"That's all right, I guess," Jack said distractedly while analyzing the huge paper bag that Stanley brought with him.

After catching his breath, Stanley jumped up and dived into the paper bag, rummaging through everything that is in there. Moments later, his blond mop of a hair reappeared and with him, followed a very smart looking suit.

"Here we are," Stanley said, gently patting the black suit. "Ladies just can't resist smart-looking guys you know? And this baby here should do the trick. This was made by a good friend of mine, so don't you dare dirty it."

A small "Oof" came from Jack as Stanley roughly shoved the suit towards him.

"Does this mean that I…" Jack reluctantly started.

"Yes," the Spirit of Love already knew what he was going to ask before Jack's voice came. "You are required to wear shoes."

"But that's just uncomfortable!"

"I shall take no complaints!" Stanley dived into the bag once more, but this time he now had a pair of black sock and leather shoes with him. "Didn't you know that a sleek suit is the female equivalent of lingerie?"

"Now, now. Go ahead, wear this," Stanley pushed him as he tried to digest the new lingerie-related information.

What? He's still a teenager after all.

Jack came back later; looking absolutely smart in the suit he was given. It got all of his measurements right that it scared him.

Stanley eyed the boy, nodding in approval. He suddenly stopped at his feet and let his eyes come back up to meet Jack's blue ones, glaring at them.

"Where. Are. Your. Shoes?" Stanley's voice was now booming and drumming through Jack's ears.

Jack opened his mouth to speak a few times but decided against it, knowing that it was never a good a idea to anger the Cupid. He might be tiny but he can sure pack a punch. Fits his overly-manly voice if you ask him.

"I'll go get them," Jack said in a defeated voice.

After five trudging minutes, Jack came back. Instead of the smart-looking man he was before, he now looks like a kid who was forced into a ruffly dress by his mother. He shifted from foot to foot, eyeing the shoes like they were some pair of vicious offenders.

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" Stanly exclaimed gleefully. "Jack, stop squirming."

"But I'm uncomfortable!" Jack whined like a little kid. Stomping his feet on the roof of the picket-fenced house.

"Nobody cares," was the reply he got. Stanley rummaged through his bag once more before pulling out a bouquet of crimson red flowers and a red box of chocolate, topped with a bow. "Now, go find your cute little girlfriend and stop soiling the beauty of my day with your brooding."

"I'm off," he said, wanting nothing more than to get away before the baby gets any more abominable ideas. He stopped a moment later and turned back to Stanley before saying, "Thanks."

"Ah, young love."

* * *

Completely unlike he previously thought, Jack found Varmilda in just about an hour. He found her seated on a park at Burgess, silently brooding. She was seated with her back to him, but her vibrant hair, mantle, and thin dress had been a dead giveaway.

He approached her, each step coming in sync with his slowly, but loudly beating heart. Had he been a normal boy, his palms would probably start sweating now. He tried to gather all of his dare devil courage and called out to her.

"Varmilda," he called her by her first name, knowing that irritating her with his given nickname for her would not do him good if he wants to be forgiven.

Varmilda's eyes widened by the sight that met her.

"I'm sorry…" he quietly said, gulping down all of his stubbornness. He gave another gulp, all his cowardice going down too, "and I love you."

Jack held his breath as Varmilda just stared at him. He didn't know how long he had been standing there, and he didn't even have the time to comprehend when Varmilda burst out into laughter.

"H-hey!" Jack's face was now as red as Varmilda's hair, clearly embarrassed being laughed at after mustering all the courage he had. He now felt as she did when he laughed at her confession.

"N-no, I-I-" she tried to speak, but was rendered unable by her fits of giggles. After a minute or two, she finally sobered up and tried to talk properly this time. "I forgive you… and I probably still would even if you didn't show up with shoes and all."

"You mean I didn't have to?" Jack said in disbelief, _she didn't even say anything about the suit._ "But Stanley said suit is the female equivalent of lingerie!"

"Nope, and Cupid? You have to learn not to trust any of his Love advice. I heard that he gets them wrong most of the time," she said with another laugh. "But don't worry, I think you look cute in a suit too."

"You love me," he told her, earning him a little blush.

"And you love me too."

"I do."

…

Extended ending(?):

"About these chocolates…" he gestured to the now-open heart-shaped box in his hands.

"Oh, I can't eat those. Look," she lifted her hands and lightly touched a little chocolate, melting it into a puddle.

Jack gave her a smile, indicating that he just had an 'amazing' idea. With his ice-cold hands, he took a piece and popped them into his own mouth. He leaned towards her inquiring face and let his lips touch hers, earning him an immediate response. He let his tongue glide over her bottom lip, and she granted him entrance almost immediately. They pulled away a few moments later with both of their cheeks tainted in light pink.

Varmilda chewed on her bottom lip lightly and said, "They taste… nice."

"I know," Jack said, looking particularly smug. "Happy Valentine's Day."

"Happy Valentine's."

* * *

**A/N: **I'm very, very, very sorry for not updating in a bajillion years. Midterms came creeping up to me and when it was finally over, my laptop thought it would be a good idea to go breaking on me. Yeah.

Ah, well. I'll try to update as regularly as I can.

...aaaand Happy Valentine's my dear readers! Here, take my heart. And this virtual chocolate too.


	24. Lost

**Chapter 22:**

Jack quickly arrived to where Tooth is. She was flying through the air and Jack flew right next to her, signaling his arrival. Tooth turned to him and gave him a nod of acknowledgement; she pointed a finger ahead of her where a blurring figure was trying to frantically get away. Jack understood immediately and tried to quicken his pace to catch up with whoever it was.

The figure that they were chasing turned sharply into an ally, giving them a glimpse of burning crimson eyes. As they tried to catch up to it they had to stop at the dead ended alley.

"What…?" Tooth said, bewildered.

Jack landed in front of the wall where the alley ends; he inspected their surroundings with bewildered eyes that were not unlike Tooth's. His searching eyes landed on a dog in the corner of the alley, he picked it up and held it against the light from the alley's entrance.

With the light, they were finally able to see clearly what they were chasing this whole time. In Jack's hands was a tiny brown furred dog with scared chocolate eyes.

"It was a dog," Jack stated, his confusion rising.

"No, no," Tooth shook her head. "It was a trap."

"What do you mean?" Jack let go of the little dog.

"Dog- red eyes- black- Oude," Tooth's words came out in scramble. She took a look around and gave a big gulp. "Where's Stern?"

"I- she went to Sandy, he also… sent…" realization finally dawned over Jack's face and without saying another word, he grabbed Tooth's hand and flew without any direction in particular.

"Where do you think is Sandy?" Jack asked Tooth.

"I don't know," Tooth tried to calm down Jack. "All I know is that you won't gain anything by blindly flying around."

Jack let go of Tooth's hand and gave a huge sigh.

"What are we going to do now?"

"I think…" Tooth started. "I think that we should go back to the Workshop and wait for everyone."

Jack was about to protest when a wave of golden sand approached them.

"I don't think we have to go back anymore," Jack told her before shooting off to where the sand came from.

* * *

They reached Europe fairly quickly and there, they found Sandy peering through a window overlooking a sleeping little boy.

"Sandy…" Tooth trailed off.

Sandy made pictures above his head a little too quickly but the other two understood anyways.

"So Oude was here?" Tooth asked, "With the boy?"

"Where's Varmie?" Jack asked while looking for any sign of the redhead.

A little question mark made of sand was all it took for a look of horror to cross Jack's and Tooth's faces. This, of course only made the Sandman much more confused, but It didn't take him long to put two and two together.

Sandy tugged on Tooth's hand and pointed a finger toward one trail out of three.

"Is that where Stern is?" Tooth's voice was laced with concern.

Sandy's nod was all it took for them to take off.

Jack found himself back where he and Varmilda were a few hours ago, except Varmilda is still missing.

"Just where is she…?" Tooth looked like she was about to cry.

Jack put a comforting hand on her shoulder and quietly suggested, "Maybe… maybe you two should get back."

"What about you?"

"I'm not coming back without Varmie."

"Then we'll stay with you. Right, Sandy?"

Sandy nodded eagerly, hoping to encourage the two Guardians in their search.

* * *

Morning came soon and they found no other choice but to go back.

They found the Workshop empty except for the elves and the yetis. After searching the Workshop, they concluded that North must still be out.

An hour later, the three Guardians found themselves seated in front of a huge fireplace, and even though it provided their much needed warmth, none of them felt very comforted.

The door burst open and caught the attention of the frantic Guardians. There on the doorway was no other than Bunnymund wearing a solemn expression.

"I met Oude…" he confessed, "and I let him get away."

Jack quickly stood up and said, "We did too."

Upon Bunnymund's confused expression, Jack went on about what happened to them the night before, recounting when they were first called for help by Tooth and Sandy at the same time up to their frantic search for the fire spirit.

"You shouldn't have split up." Bunnymund stated but can't really blame the boy for anything.

"I know…" Jack said quietly, a rare look of guilt crossing his pale face.

The rest of the Guardians were saved from comforting the white-haired boy by the door opening once more.

"What happened?" North said upon taking in their expressions.

"Stern's missing," Bunnymund said as if explaining everything with those two words.

North paced back and forth for while, with his head in his hands. He lifted his head and turned to the Guardians, and said in defeat,

"Were going to have to wait."

* * *

"_Have you forgotten me, my dear Bloesom?" the red eyed man asked the calm girl, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear._

"_I- is that possible?" her voice cracked a little, her expression unreadable._

"_No."_

"_Did you ever forget about me?"_

"_No, not ever," the man studied her for a while before his face broke out into a perfect picture of happiness._

_And with that, the girl shot towards the man, not anymore intending to hurt him but to engulf him into an embrace filled with years of longing. The girl cried and cried, her head resting on the man's chest, her embrace reciprocated with one just as loving._

_The man pulled away from the girl for a while, he lifted her head for him to see her tear-stained face. A smile made its way up to his face which grew bigger as the girl smiled back._

"_Did you miss me?" he tentatively asked her._

"_I missed you," the girl nodded with a smile, "papa"_

"_I missed you too, my child."_

* * *

**A/N: ** Ah, I'm so sorry for being an asshole and leaving off with a special chapter and a cliffhanger. I didn't mean not to update, I swear. I don't think I can really keep up with updating regularly with my Internship. I hope I don't drive you guys away with my lack of updates.


	25. confused

**Chapter 23:**

"That's it! I can't take this anymore!" Jack suddenly exclaimed after an hour more of waiting. "I'm going to find Varmie on my own."

The moment he said this, the door to the Workshop opened, revealing the very same girl that they had spent the early morning looking for. Varmilda suddenly turned to Sandy, shame plastered on her face.

"Sandy, I'm so sorry…" Varmilda looked down to her feet then bit her lips.

"Stern, where were you?" Nort's looming voice suddenly called to her. From the sound of things, he does not seem too pleased with her disappearance.

"The children, there were so many of them…" Varmilda's voice became quieter and quieter by every word. "I can't just leave them, I'm sorry."

"Don't be, Stern," Tooth's soothing voice told her. "You had to do your duty, everyone was just worried about you."

"It won't happen again…"

"No, it will not." North said in an authority-filled voice. "Because, you are to stay here in the morning and only leave during the night."

"You can't do that!" Varmilda yelled indignantly. "You can't keep me here!"

"We have to. Oude will not touch the children in the morning light," North stated. "But you are a different case. Nobody will see him hurt you, nobody will hear."

Varmilda suddenly looked sad and hurt, though Jack was pretty sure that it was not because of North pointing out that she had no believers. She was the one who told him she didn't care, so it puzzled him what had hurt her feelings.

Varmilda closed her eyes and bowed her head. She let out a heavy breath as she nodded her head, submitting to North's uncharacteristic dictatorship.

"Now that that's all settled," Bunnymund suddenly spoke up. "I have to go. I still have a spring to prepare for."

* * *

Jack and Varmilda decided to hang out in the room that North had given her for her stay here in the North Pole. Well… Varmilda wanted to rest and Jack just figured that he had nothing better to do than to just follow her.

"You know, you really had everyone freaking out last night," Jack said after long minutes of silence. He sat on a chair in front of a vanity on one side of the room.

"I said I'm sorry, all right?" Varmilda yelled from the bed where she sat. She gave an annoyed sigh and rolled her eyes on the white-haired boy.

"Sheesh, what's with your temper today, Varmie?" Jack raised both of his hands and put them behind his head as he leaned back on the chair.

"I'm just tired…" she grabbed a nearby pillow and hugged in near her. "It's been a long night."

"Then sleep." Jack said simply, giving a shrug as she turned her eyes on him.

"I can't, I'm too worried." There was that look of sadness on her face again, the same on that he had seen earlier as North reprimanded her.

"Then talk to me," Jack tried to distract her from whatever that was worrying here.

"We're already talking aren't we?" Varmilda raised an eyebrow at him.

"No, not like that," he rolled his eyes and gave a sigh. He unfolded his hands from behind his head and stood up. He walked to Varmilda's bed then sat near the edge. "I meant that I want you to explain to me why North suddenly became like that?"

"Like what?" Varmilda looked at him with a confused expression.

"Suddenly all dictator-like on you?" Jack said as if stating the obvious.

"Why don't you ask him?" the red-head's expression turned cold.

"What's with you and this Oude guy?" he suddenly got to that point, ignoring Varmilda's shocked expression. "How come you're locked here while the others are still out there?"

"You really should ask North that."

"No, I want to hear it from you," he knew that he was already going a little too far, but his curious side just seemed to take over.

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do." Jack stated. "I barely know you, and we're supposed to be friends."

"W-what!?" Varmilda was caught off-guard by Jack's words.

"Friends are supposed to trust each other, you know." Jack crossed his arms. "Just like last night, did you not think that we're trustworthy enough for you to contact us at the very least?"

"I was too busy, okay?" Varmilda defended herself.

"Too busy to send out your little butterflies?" The white-haired boy raised an eyebrow.

"Well, sorry for being so weak!" Varmilda threw the pillow she was holding at him. "We all know how I'm not as strong as the other spirits; I had to conserve all my energy to last the night!"

"I didn't mean it like that!" Jack's eyes widened at his obviously upset friend. _I should have thought better on how I word things._

"Get out." Varmilda's voice cracked. "Please."

Jack didn't argue any further. As he opened the door, he turned to Varmilda just in time to see the first of her tears falling. He suddenly felt an odd tug at his heart, and he didn't like it one bit. He wanted to comfort her, but he knew that he'll only make her angrier.

"I'm sorry." Jack said silently but loud enough for her to hear. Little did he know that Varmilda said the same too after he got out.

"I'm sorry…" Varmilda cried silently even though no one can hear her. "I'm so sorry for lying."

Out of tiredness, Varmilda finally succumbed to sleep. In her peaceful slumber, dreams invaded her mind. Dreams that are nothing more than memories.

* * *

"_Papa, drink this." A brown haired, green eyed, six year old Varmilda pushed a glass of water towards her drunken father on the table._

_The girl's father just glared at her before knocking out the glass from her little hands. Varmilda flinched as it broke, and then moved to pick the pieces up. Her father might be angry at her but she can never be angry at him. _

_Ever since her mother's death almost a year ago, her father changed drastically. He used to be a short and round, jolly man… but now, all of his previous happiness left him. He used to be her light, everyone's light. He used to be the pillar of their family, but when her mother passed away, the pillar that used to be him seemed to crumble._

_He stopped taking care of himself and spent his days away in drinking. Though he was still as short as ever, the only trait that Varmilda inherited from him, he was no longer round. He stopped eating properly some months ago. Her father now looked as thin and sickly as her. Her father's old fiery red hair was now long dulled by the gray strands that took over his head. He wasn't her father anymore, but still…_

_Varmilda gave a tiny cry as the glass cut her dainty finger. Her father heard this and turned to her. He stood up from his previously slumped position on the table and walked to where the young girl is. He kneeled to the girl's level and lifted his right arm. _

_For a while, Varmilda thought that she was going to get hit, but she stiffened as her father's hand came down to her hair and smoothed it out gently. His other hand went to the girl's hand as he inspected her finger. She looked at her father's face and was surprised as she saw tears running down from his eyes._

_Her father suddenly pulled her into him and sobbed into her hair. His shoulders shook as he cried. Not knowing what to do, Varmilda simply hugged him back, offering him the comfort that he needed. _

_Seeing her father cried awakened emotions inside of her, emotions that are too big for her little mind to comprehend. Just like her father, she cried too, and whether it was because of her cut or the unknown emotions in her she didn't care._

"_I'm sorry, my dear," her father said in between sobs. "I'm so sorry."_

* * *

**A/N: **I'm alive! Ha! I had a sudden burst of inspiration and have rose from the dead!

But seriously though, other than the tiring internship, I was hit by a bad case of writer's block. [Who knew? That thing really did exist.]

Aaand, thank you to whoever's still reading this. Really, thank you for your patience with all my amateurness [is that even a word?]. I give you all of my love, my dears~


	26. hurt

**Chapter 24:**

_"Matches! Matches! Please buy my matches!" The six-year old Varmilda shouted on top of her lungs. "Matches!"_

_She looked down at her basket full of unlit match sticks and gave a sigh. Even after hours and hours of yelling, she still hadn't sold anything. It was perfectly understandable though, who would want to buy matches from a dirty little kid dressed in rags._

_Finally giving up, she looked around her before heading to a nearby park. It was already midnight so nobody else would be there, the town folks would prefer the night life in the market and not in some dingy old park. She walked to a nearby bench and set her basket down. With her little arms, she tried to push herself up the ridiculously high bench [or maybe she was just too small]. She was already on her third attempt when she felt something tugging at the back of her brown coat, and hoisting her up the bench._

_As she settled down the wooden bench, she looked around to find who helped her. She didn't have to look hard though, for in front of her was her helper._

_"Hello there, Red." She said to the black-haired dog in front of her. _

_The dog was humongous not only to the little Varmilda but probably to other people too. It had silky black hair and tantalizing red eyes. Its eye color would have reminded her of the color of blood, but since she knew nothing about those, she settled for fresh cherries. _

_The dog gave her a bark of acknowledgement and nuzzled its snout on her nose. It turned around for a little while and grabbed something from behind him. When it turned back to her, it now had a basket clutched in its mouth. Varmilda already knew what this meant so she grabbed the basket from the dog immediately. _

_She settled it in her lap before peeing in it excitedly. Inside, she found a pair of wool mittens that matched with the scarf and the hat inside the basket. The little girl gave a squeal of delight and moved to hug the dog in front of her._

_She still remembers when she first met the dog. It was also on a snowy night not unlike this one, the same snowy night that took her mother away from her. The dog went up to her as she tried to sell matches, when she noticed it, she panicked immediately and ran. The dog chased after her until it managed to corner her in between two houses. It scared her, until the dog nuzzled her and gave her a lick on the cheek. It turned out to be one friendly dog, and it had a present for her too. It gave her a flower headdress, and when she did not accept it, it left only to come back later with same headdress and with a card that she slowly read:_

_'To the little match girl.'_

* * *

Varmilda had been rudely pulled out of her slumber by the persistent knocking on the door. She walked up and opened it only to slam it shut again as she saw Jack's face. Everything was silent for a moment until Jack knocked again, obviously hesitant this time. With a sigh, Varmilda finally opened it and gave the boy an expectant look.

"North said you're free to go now," Jack said, not quite meeting her eyes. "Until morning I mean."

Varmilda just gave him a nod before passing him. She continued to walk away until she heard him say,

"I'm really sorry for what I did this morning," he said unsurely. "I didn't mean to make you angry."

"It's all right," she finally faced him "I'm sorry too. For overreacting."

"Does that mean we're friends again?" Jack said after a minute of awkward silence.

Varmilda smiled and nodded at him before saying, "Yes, but I really have to go now."

"About that…" Jack started. "North asked me to accompany you."

"Accompany me…?" _This is bad. _"Let's go."

* * *

The snow that Jack made earlier for April Fool's was now nothing more than melted puddles, and though they have already melted away, it seems that Jack has no power over the chill in the air.

"We better start now," Varmilda lifted a bony arm and made her palms face upward before creating little flaming butterflies. The butterflies suddenly reminded Jack of something she had said earlier.

"Hey Varmie," Jack called out as the girl headed for an alley.

Varmilda made a small sound of acknowledgement as she created fire for the child in the claustrophobic space.

"You said that every kid can see the flames you made that didn't come from your mantle right?"

"I did…?" she said distractedly. "I guess I did."

She didn't seem to pay attention to him, but he was already used to her ignoring him whenever she works, but tonight was a tad bit different, she seemed a little more focused on something that Jack was sure had nothing to do with children.

"Does that mean that the children you help can see them too?" He wanted to ask her what was bothering her, but considering the 'fight' they just had a while ago; it didn't seem like a good idea to ask her out of the blue. He chose to drop his questions for a while, he still have time later.

Varmilda nodded so lightly that he wasn't really sure she did. Just as he was about to ask her again she said, "Why?"

"Nothing."

_No, not nothing, _Jack thought. Even after the months they had spent as friends, Jack thought that he already understood why Varmilda didn't mind having no believers, but this recent discovery shocked him. He became confused once more. _The children she protects know more about the butterflies but not about her._

They were probably already on their hundredth alley by now when a huge growl resounded behind them. They turned around and saw a huge black dog with crimson eyes glaring menacingly at them, its body in a position like one of a predator who found its prey.

Jack stepped in front of Varmilda and held his wooden staff defensively in front of them, his glacial colored eyes locking with the dog's blood colored ones. He tilted his head lightly then asked Varmilda, "That's Oude right?"

Varmilda nodded momentarily forgetting that he can't see her before hastily adding "Yes."

"Hey you!" Jack fiercely shouted at Oude. He glared at the dog with hate. He didn't really know who Oude really was but judging from how the Guardians and Varmilda reacted to him, he had long known that this Dog was nothing more than trouble. His grip on the staff tightened.

"I'll hold him. Go get the others then go somewhere safe," Jack whispered to Varmilda.

"Jack…" she begun, but before she could say anything more, both the Dog and the boy lunged towards each other.

As they collided, the force from the impact blew them back a few feet away from each other. Jack raised his staff and swung it towards Oude's direction, sending heavy and ice-cold wind at him and blowing him away. Oude rolled as he fell back and hit a nearby house, startling a number of people on the street they were in.

"No!" Varmilda shouted before she was able to stop herself. She hastily added, "You'll make your presence know to others."

Oude stood on all fours and shook his raven mane before growling and going for Jack. This time, it was Jack who flew ways away. Before Jack was able to stand, Oude lunged at him once more. Jack tried to defend himself with his staff but Oude locked his jaws on it and threw it a few feet away from them. Oude bit Jack's arm that sent white hot pain through him. Jack bit on his lips and did all that he can to stifle his scream.

"Stop! Don't hurt him!" Varmilda shouted as she let her body be consumed by flames before jumping to where Oude is.

"Varmie, no!" Jack tried to sit up; the unexpected force that Jack used sent a jolt of pain through him once more, forcing him to stay on the ground.

Her attack didn't really do much but at least it made Oude tumble off of Jack and light up the tips of his fur. Varmilda glared at him hatefully, showing how displeased she was at his violent greeting.

She turned to Jack before saying, "Stay here."

Jack managed to at least sit himself down as he clutched his bitten shoulder. He grinded his teeth together, before managing to ask, "What are you-"

Varmilda lunged at Oude again, effectively cutting Jack off. Oude backed away from the flaming girl and shook the flames away. He ran to the nearest alley. The girl followed him persistently, wanting to have at least some kind of pay back for what he did to her friend.

Once Oude was sure that there was nobody else but him and Varmilda, he stopped running and transformed back into a man. Varmilda stood in front of him but refused to rid of the flames dancing on her body.

"How can you hurt him!?" Varmilda shouted at him, momentarily forgetting how much the man means to her. "He's my friend."

Oude's eyes widened at her words and his body started to shake. Burning anger took over his eyes only to be washed away with guilt. At that moment, he felt so ashamed of himself, as if he doesn't even deserve to be in her presence. He felt small, smaller than he ever felt before even though the girl barely reached his chest with his towering height and her small stature. He looked down to his feet and stepped toward Varmilda.

"I'm sorry…" He stepped forward again, his hands in front of him as if wanting to hold the girl. He shook his head and grabbed a fistful of his teeth chattered as he said, "Don't hate me… Don't hate me, please. Bloesom, please."

"I don't hate you…" _I can never truly hate you_. She let the flames around her die down and took a deep breath. This man. She knew that she should hate him, she has all the reasons in the world to hate him and yet… "Just don't hurt my friends again."

"Of course," the man nodded enthusiastically, a wide crooked grin made its way on his handsome face. He looked at her dead and the eyes and she saw nothing but madness in them.

"I love you, my dearest Bloesom," Oude whispered in her ear as he hugged her tightly.

Varmilda reluctantly hugged him back, fear and confusion overruling her emotions. She feared the man's immense power and she also feared how he was completely in control of her, but she was also confused… confused as to why he hadn't hurt her yet, she whose powers were at the bottom of the food chain, and she was also confused why she can't seem to leave him despite all the hate she should have.

"Varmie!" The fire spirit's head shot up as she heard Jack's voice from somewhere not far from them.

_Jack can't see us like this, _she thought as she quickly pulled away from the man. "Go."

"But I hadn't seen you in hours!" the man exclaimed, his grip on the girl tightening. "I just want to spend time with my daughter."

"If he sees you it'll ruin all our plans!" the girl replied in a low hiss. "Now go."

The man reluctantly pulled away from her, only doing so as to not disappoint his daughter. He bent down before transforming into a dog and disappearing into the night.

Truth to be told she didn't really worry about how their plans getting ruined, she feared more for Jack's safety. Had Jack seen them, surely Oude would not hesitate to silence the winter spirit even if he were to go against his beloved daughter's wishes.

Varmilda dropped down on her knees in exhaustion. She took in deep breaths as she tried to calm down her erratically pounding heart.

"Varmie!" Jack shouted as he caught sight of the girl in the alley, her back facing him.

He quickly dropped down on his knees and went eye to eye with the girl. He warily put his hands on her shoulders. "Varmie…?"

She didn't really know what made her do it, and whether it was because of the fear Oude brought or the relief Jack provided, she didn't really care. As she looked up at Jack and saw his worried face, she jumped up and hugged him tightly, earning an inaudible grunt of pain from Jack.

Jack didn't say anything. If there is one thing he knew, it was that words were not needed right now. He felt Varmilda's hold tighten and bury her face on the crook on his neck. His breath got caught in his throat for a little while and he felt his heartbeat quicken. Inside him, he felt something… it was unfamiliar but it was not unwelcomed. He mentally shook his head, _it was just the haze from the fight, _he told himself as he leaned in closer to the warm girl.

Varmilda felt Jack put his chin on top of her head. She felt warm… she didn't feel her body's scorching heat, nor did she feel Jack's freezing coldness, all she felt was warmth. She wanted to feel more of it, but before she can marvel in it, her nose caught a scent. It was something metallic… it was blood.

_Oude bit Jack, _her eyes widened. She quickly pulled away from him and held him at arm's length as her eyes searched his body. Surely, on his right shoulder was a huge patch of blood. _No!_

"Jack…" Varmilda noticed that his eyes were slightly hazy and that he swayed ever so slightly. She held his head on her hands and tried to soothingly rub his cheeks despite the fear she was feeling.

"Varmie… I feel…" Jack tried to talk, but the lids of his eyes drooped down heavily as he succumbed to sleep. "Tired."

* * *

**A/N: **Update! Update! Here's your update!

Dear Glob Oude is a hard character to write. He's maaaaaad.

Wah, I had a hard time trying to put this chapter into words. Phew.

Anyways, I wanted to ask you guys something. I have all these fluffy one shots inside my mind for Jack and Varmie and I've been wondering, if I were to compile them into another story, would you guys read them?


	27. Deaf

**Chapter 25:**

_It was dark, he noted. Wherever he is, it was very dark. There was nothing but darkness around him, nothing but an abyss of nothingness. It was also very quiet too… too quiet that it was deafening him… too quiet that the silence seemed to scream at him. _

_Suddenly, he heard ringing in his ears. The ringing ceased to stop and got louder as time passed by. He didn't know how long he had been here with the resounding ring as his only company, but he didn't seem to wonder much either. He seemed too tired to care. _

_The ringing stopped, and he was able to feel again. He cannot move, but he can surely feel the nothingness surrounding him. He felt like he was suspended in air, it was a scary sensation and yet it comforted him. _

_The ringing came back once more but this time, it sounded clearer, much more audible. He breathed in and out slowly and tried to listen intently. He wanted so desperately to know what it is. His ears picked up the rhythmic sound and he was finally able to hear. It sounded like… __**church bells.**_

* * *

"Help! Help us, please!" Varmilda shouted as she and Jack burst out from the fireplace inside the Workshop. She didn't really want to use the fireplace in fear that she would scorch Jack, but she had to get help quickly. She knew it would take her hours to get here by air, double that with the unconscious Jack in tow.

"Someone! Anyone, please help," her grip on Jack started to slack, she adjusted his left arm on her shoulder and wrapped her arm on his waist tighter.

North burst into the room with a panicked face, at the sight of the bleeding Jack on Varmilda's shoulder, North hurried towards them. "Jack! Stern!"

North took Jack from Varmilda's hold before the boy crushed the little redhead with his weight. Without uttering a word, he went out of the room and motioned Varmilda to follow him. The hall that they walked in was as magnificent as ever, toys littered the place and colors seemed to dance right in front of her eyes. It was beautiful, but like the first time she went here, she found herself not caring, instead all her attention was focused on the white haired guardian carried by North.

They soon stopped in front of a spare room in the Workshop, not unlike the room she has been provided with. North quickly went inside and settle the boy on the bed. He stared at Jack for a moment, unsure of what he had to do. He looked at Varmilda and silently asked for her help.

At once, Varmilda walked to where North is. They both eyed the unconscious boy, trying to think of the best way to treat him without moving him, but alas, it was inevitable. His wound was on his shoulder, somewhere they would not reach without having to remove his frosted hoodie, and moving him, putting stress on the wound.

North carefully held the boy and sat him up, making it easier for Varmilda to peel away his hoodie. She carefully lifted it up until it reached his chest. He didn't wear anything else underneath; she noted and thought that had they been in a less scary predicament she would have laughed. She stopped for a while then reached for Jack's left arm; she lifted the hoodie once more until it reached his elbow where she folded it near him to let the rest of his arm free. From then on, it became easier for her. She just simply pulled it over his head and slowly slid it out of his right arm, which North supported as to not move the boy's injured shoulder.

Varmilda looked up at North expectantly. Even as a human she never really got any bad wounds before and therefore had no need to learn how to clean them and such. She figured that North would have much more experience in this field that she does, seeing that he is a Guardian and all. She stepped away to give space for the older man.

North examined Jack for a little while before heading out of the room to get the supplies needed. Other than the elves and yetis outside there was no one else here but the two Guardians and Varmilda. It was night time so Sandy and Tooth would have to leave and do their duties, Easter was getting closer too, making Bunnymund just as busy, and none of the Guardians actually lived here but North, they were only here because of the latest ruckus created by a man named Oude.

She let her eyes wander toward Jack and take in all that she is seeing. His body looked fit with a healthy amount of muscles on his pale body. He probably did have a good life as a human. Spirits like them tended to retain their appearance as humans though there were some cases of them changing, like Stanley for example, he wasn't a baby when the moon turned him into what he is now, Baby New Year too, and of course there was Oude, though she thinks that his seven feet height was natural, she's pretty sure that Oude' certainly did not turn into a dog as a human… _Oude._

North came back holding what seems to be a first aid kit. He sat on the bed and quickly started to clean up all the blood on Jack's shoulder. Without the crimson liquid on him to block their views, they were now able to see clearly the deep marks left by the Dog.

After cleaning and bandaging Jack's wounds, North finally found the opportunity to ask Varmilda, "Was it Oude?"

Varmilda nodded, recalling the pained look from Jack when the Dog bit him. "He- he bit Jack."

Back when Oude and the Guardians were still well acquainted, Oude had always been a kind man so they never saw his power nor find out if he even had any ability other than transforming and controlling dogs, and when Oude did start to use his powers it was already too late for them to find out more about him, it was when Oude turned ballistic, when he started attacking and abducting children. Their priority at that time was to stop the mad man. Other than what he knew when they were still friends, North knew nothing about Oude at all so he can only hope that he is not as powerful as he seemed.

"Do you know what his bite does?" he asked the fire spirit, hoping that he would be enlightened.

"A little." Her eyes turned to her feet and a hardened look glossed over them at the thought of Jack falling into Oude's power. "We can't- we can't do anything about it…"

"What will happen to him?"

"I don't know much but…" she bit her lips and rubbed her hands together, a sure sign of anxiety. "Many of those who have been bitten do not ever come back, and those who do turned deaf, dumb and blind."

Varmilda nodded. "Back when I was still a new spirit, when I still knew nothing about Oude's previous attacks he stopped himself completely from using his powers but I was curious, so I asked him."

"He gave me some kind of a summary about them and that was it. I didn't really pay much attention then, I didn't know that knowledge about his abilities would be crucial now…"

"It's not your fault," North placed a huge hand on her shoulder. "None of us knew then, but it would really help if you share what you do know."

"Oude's bite…" she took a deep breath and tried to find the best way to answer the man. "He told me before that those that he bite falls into some kind of a comatose," she gestured to Jack, "and during this period the person's mind is transported into somewhere else… their deep subconscious, I think. And whether the person wakes up or not will be something that they will decide for themselves."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not really sure…" Varmilda shook her head. "I think he said something about once the person lets his subconscious eat them away, their physical body disappears too and if they don't disappear, a lot of complications fall on them such as the disabilities I have mentioned earlier… but that only goes for the humans, the mortals, I don't know if it will affect a spirit in the same way."

Varmilda took a deep breath and buried her face into her hands, her frustrations felt easily by North. The man clad in red brought up a hand to her shoulder once more and squeezed, trying to hopefully pass on some strength within the girl. When the girl finally looked up at him, he looked at her dead in the eyes and said,

"Jack is a strong boy, he'll manage."

* * *

_They were church bells, he was sure, but he can't help but feel something odd about them. In the dark, he strained his ears and tried to listen and find out what was wrong with the bells. Suddenly, his ears finally caught what it was, it was a subtle difference but he was sure of it. The bells weren't ringing lively like when there's a feast, it was not ringing in a rhythmic and calm pattern like when there's a mass, it was ringing slowly… like a __**funeral toll.**_

_Suddenly he found himself unable to hear any longer, but he was finally able to feel. He felt cold… icy. He no longer felt like he was suspended mid-air, but he felt his body surrounded by something fluid… he was covered in water. He gasped, only to have his lungs bombarded with the freezing water. He clutched his neck and tried to conserve what little oxygen he had left._

_He opened his eyes… _Had they been closed all this time? _He saw more nothingness but there was light too… it was tiny, fragile, but it was there. He looked up and saw where the light came from, his vision was blurry but he was sure that it was the moon that he saw. He tried to reach out to it, holding out a brown sleeved arm above his head. He kicked his legs, wanting to get closer to the light, but he can't, he found himself too cold and too numb to move._

_He tried to think, but he found himself unable to. He can't seem to remember how he got here or why he was here, in fact, he can't even seem to remember anything, his name, his age, his face all forgotten. He tried to remember but he can only see nothingness inside his own mind._

_He started to sink further, deeper into the nothingness and farther from the moon's silver light. He tried to struggle but only managed to make himself tired. He felt something wrap around his legs but he did not dare look down, he was afraid that once he looked down at the darkness he would no longer be able to see the light. The grip on his legs tightened, he was tired and he was aching, but he kicked with all his might. _

_He persistently fought against the grip, but it seemed that his efforts were not quite sufficient. His own body started to work against him, the breath that he had been trying to conserve was now nothing more than puffs of air. He had to get out of here, that much he knew, so he fought harder. He thrashed and he kicked until he felt something snap and felt pain shot through him. He screamed but was still unable to hear. _

_It was the end, his end. He felt too tired to move, too tired to think. He let his body go limp, letting the unseen force pull him deeper. He glanced one last time at the moon… __**At least I get to die looking at something beautiful.**_

_Just as he was about to close his eyes, a silhouette appeared on the edge of his vision. He tried to focus on the person and though he saw nothing more than a shadow, he was sure that he knew this person. It was a girl…she was young… she's shouting something. Though he still can't hear anything, his heart felt that person calling out his name. He knows who she is now, she is his sister, and she was calling for him._

**_That's right… my name is…_**

_"Jack."_

* * *

**A/N: **Arrrgh! ASDFGHJKL If I thought that the last chapter I wrote was hard, then this was the BOMB. Dear gawd, I legitimately cried tears of frustration while writing this. I had a hard time putting everything into words [I can feel my hair graying already], and I never knew that it was possible but I quite literally got sick while writing this chapter- no, not sick _with, _but sick _by _writing. I was unable to sleep with my mind going a thousand miles per minute in thinking a hundred ways to write one scene and so I ended up with a massive headache and a fever this morning OH MY GLOB. But here it is!

Anyways, for those who are confused, I'm sorry but you're going to have to stay confused a little longer. I do apologize. [I'm confusing myself too but oh well!]

Oh, and by the way, I'll be using Jack's sister for the next chapter so I was wondering, what do you think is a good name for her? I really need suggestions because I suck at name giving.


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